Latest / United We Scan / Safety at work and away

Transcript

Safety at work and away · United We Scan

• 0:14
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:18
  carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
• 0:22
  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
• 0:25
  not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
• 0:28
  United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
• 0:30
  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
• 0:33
  your assigned union representative for guidance in
• 0:35
  your local area. Please like this podcast, share
• 0:39
  with your fellow rural carriers, and subscribe to be notified
• 0:42
  each time a new episode is uploaded.
• 0:44
  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:50
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
• 0:55
  Episode 126, Safety at Work and away got a lot of stuff to cover
• 1:02
  today. So we're going to get through
• 1:03
  this as quick as we can to start it out.
• 1:06
  Don't you tell us about your week, Bill.
• 1:09
  Oh, I'm telling you it I, I, I pray for everyone of you out
• 1:15
  there in the craft, the, the stories I've heard, the
• 1:19
  questions I've gotten it. It's just it's hard to believe
• 1:23
  that this organization called the United States Postal Service
• 1:27
  can actually operate, function as an entity serving the
• 1:32
  community with the people running it.
• 1:35
  It is absolutely scary. And I, I, I, I, I'm going to,
• 1:42
  I'm going to ride this horse till my death.
• 1:45
  The NSS does not need a national officer with a house in
• 1:49
  Alexandria. They ought to be at their home.
• 1:52
  The NSS ought to be decentralized and giving back to
• 1:54
  the States. If I hear one more complaint
• 1:58
  about a DRADR area Stewart Local Stewart.
• 2:10
  And obviously they don't because apparently the craft feels
• 2:14
  they're not being represented or fairly represented in their
• 2:20
  offices. And I, I just, I, I truly do, I,
• 2:24
  I, my hat's off to everybody who's in this craft because
• 2:28
  you're not only fighting management every day, you have
• 2:31
  to fight the NSS. And I, I, I don't know how you
• 2:36
  do it. I really don't.
• 2:38
  And you know, God be with you because it's scary when you have
• 2:43
  that many fronts to to battle every day.
• 2:46
  My week basically has been very enjoyable.
• 2:50
  You know, I had the grandson over Tuesday, Wednesday had all
• 2:54
  my grandsons and sons over here Friday for July 4th and a couple
• 2:59
  of in laws and their spouses. And, you know, spent most of the
• 3:02
  time at the grill making sure everybody was well fed.
• 3:05
  And it was just a picture perfect day weather wise,
• 3:11
  everything was just great. It was great to have my family
• 3:14
  rally, which I'm so appreciative.
• 3:17
  So yeah, I just, I've had a a great week, you know, as far as
• 3:21
  that is concerned. But you know, like I said with
• 3:24
  the steward system, that this is just, it's making my stomach tie
• 3:28
  up in knots. How about you, Josh?
• 3:31
  How'd your week go? I could get used to this work
• 3:34
  schedule. You come in on Monday or I come
• 3:38
  in on Monday. I work, I'm off Tuesday, work
• 3:42
  Wednesday and Thursday, off Friday, work yesterday, off
• 3:46
  today. Not a bad schedule.
• 3:50
  Point of privilege y'all. You know me as the elections
• 3:56
  person, but I'm also going to be the safety person.
• 3:59
  Right off jump. One of my RCA's in the SNDC had
• 4:04
  an accident. I totaled the Metris.
• 4:07
  Both parties, the person that hit him and the carrier are
• 4:11
  fine. So you're you already know what
• 4:15
  I'm going to say. I'm going to say it again.
• 4:17
  As Bill says in his parlance, where the damn seat belt.
• 4:21
  I don't want to hear of a carrier getting hurt.
• 4:25
  Every airbag in that mattress, according to the RCA, popped.
• 4:30
  The Metris was totaled. I saw a picture of it, but the
• 4:34
  key is that our carrier's OK. Overall, my week was, like I
• 4:40
  said, tongue in cheek. I love my new work schedule, get
• 4:44
  used to that. But yesterday I had very little
• 4:49
  raw mail and I'm thinking what awaits me on Monday.
• 4:54
  But overall, not too bad. It actually cooled off a little
• 5:01
  bit here and hopefully it'll keep cooling off because it's
• 5:05
  95°. Bullshit.
• 5:07
  No, I don't do it. I don't like humidity.
• 5:12
  So that was my week, James. Yeah, it's I now know what it's
• 5:23
  like to be in a formula office by having Friday off and working
• 5:27
  Saturday working my K day, you know, and having a day in
• 5:30
  between your off days. That sucks.
• 5:33
  I feel I feel bad for you guys that have formula offices having
• 5:38
  to do that because I usually use my Saturday to be a little slow
• 5:42
  getting around, doing things, kind of rebuilding my energy
• 5:45
  from the week of work and then Sunday doing the work I need to
• 5:48
  do around the house and stuff like that, you know, but having
• 5:52
  Friday off then going back to work Saturday, then having
• 5:54
  Sunday off and then going back to work tomorrow.
• 5:58
  Drag, but the week was OK and I'm going to make a point to
• 6:10
  people who are in our system, your grievance count doesn't
• 6:19
  matter as much as your ability to get management to not do it
• 6:25
  in the first place. Saturday morning, one of my RCA
• 6:32
  comes up to me and says that they're forcing our RCA to go to
• 6:37
  another office when they're finished with their route.
• 6:41
  I turned around and had a discussion with my supervisor
• 6:45
  and with that discussion alone, those carriers did not go to
• 6:50
  that other office to cover routes.
• 6:53
  That is how you make change here.
• 6:55
  It doesn't need to be a grievance and one of the
• 7:03
  carriers was on a full route, the other one was running both
• 7:09
  aux routes and we had new carriers on 2 routes that they
• 7:15
  hadn't done much of before. So what ended happening up
• 7:20
  happening is the carrier on the aux route as well as other
• 7:24
  carriers went out and helped the newer carriers to get them back
• 7:28
  before the truck left for the day.
• 7:31
  So they ended up actually working more hours at our office
• 7:35
  than they, you know, sending them to another office that way
• 7:40
  and taking care of our office, getting our offices completely
• 7:44
  done. And that is the definition of
• 7:51
  how you need to work together with management and how
• 7:54
  management needs to work with us.
• 7:57
  You say, hey, this isn't right. They're like, OK, what do you
• 8:01
  got? Well, I have the order of
• 8:03
  consideration here and it says specifically if they're running
• 8:06
  a regular route, they cannot be used in another office.
• 8:10
  OK, send that. Send that to me really quick.
• 8:13
  So that way I have it on record if anybody argues with me on it,
• 8:16
  but it's taken care of. That simple.
• 8:21
  Now, granted, there are managers out there that won't do that.
• 8:26
  Those are the ones we need to go after.
• 8:28
  We need to fix those because we should be able to show them in
• 8:32
  black and white that they're wrong and then go, all right,
• 8:36
  I'll fix it without having to go through the grievance process.
• 8:41
  Now, granted, some will say just grieve it later, but we need our
• 8:50
  whole system to be in that mindset of getting management to
• 8:55
  agree they're wrong before it goes to the grievance process.
• 8:59
  And that requires boots in the office.
• 9:03
  You know, we talked about how we don't have a lot of local
• 9:05
  stewards out there, but we still can have boots in the office.
• 9:12
  That ain't how. Go ahead.
• 9:16
  Yeah, that's a great segue into my situation because of the fact
• 9:20
  that that actually happened. A carrier called me and they're
• 9:27
  area Stewart wasn't available so they called me and they had they
• 9:32
  had two Subs on scheduled on routes and they were sent to
• 9:37
  another town. I won't mention the town so I
• 9:40
  don't give the carrier away. They were sent to another town
• 9:43
  that helped there. Now they're down 3 routes.
• 9:48
  Now you you sit there and say now how are you going to cover 3
• 9:51
  routes when you just gave 2 carriers away.
• 9:55
  Well first of all I explained if those carriers were scheduled
• 9:58
  they are considered unavailable be sent to other offices.
• 10:04
  Then the manager went further and mandated regulars help which
• 10:10
  I brought up the MOU which is it's volunteer not voluntold.
• 10:17
  And that was the abuse we were talking about.
• 10:19
  That was the abuse we were talking about with that MOU.
• 10:21
  Is management doing exactly that?
• 10:24
  And you know, once I got this carrier straightened out, I made
• 10:28
  sure they, they went back to the, you know, the area store
• 10:31
  because it is a good area. Stewart.
• 10:33
  They just weren't available at the, at the time, but laid out
• 10:37
  the, you know, the grievances that you know, the, the file for
• 10:41
  and said make sure you attach copies.
• 10:44
  Make sure in the settlement you put cease and desist
• 10:47
  immediately. And I said, and make sure you
• 10:49
  put a financial penalty on there for this occurrence and any
• 10:53
  future occurrences. And this carrier said, Bill, why
• 10:58
  aren't you arch steward? But the fact of the matter is it
• 11:03
  it just like you said, you know, you're sending people to
• 11:06
  offices, but they're already scheduled in your own office.
• 11:10
  Now this, this is a microcosm of the actual problem because that
• 11:16
  manager made that decision, was probably pressured from above to
• 11:21
  send somebody to send people to this other office, which means
• 11:25
  they are living in fear for their job because they may have,
• 11:29
  you know, actually, you know, defied a regional, a district
• 11:32
  manager or a poom, it doesn't matter.
• 11:35
  You're violating your knowingly violating the contract.
• 11:39
  And James is not a steward, but he stepped in and interfere with
• 11:43
  the other process going into his office and resolved it without a
• 11:46
  grievance and without a steward. You're not going to do that 80%
• 11:52
  of the time, but the fact that you sit there and you explain it
• 11:56
  to them, you show them to them in black and white, and that MOU
• 11:59
  ought to be posted up in every office.
• 12:03
  You can turn around and shortcut the whole process of grieving it
• 12:08
  by standing up for others. And may I say something?
• 12:14
  Always chair recognizes John. Stowe, Delegate North Carolina
• 12:22
  By standing up for others, you run the very distinct
• 12:26
  possibility of actually bringing people into the union because
• 12:32
  they see their fellow carriers and soon to be craft members
• 12:36
  stepping up and helping people. Imagine that if we stand up, if
• 12:43
  we have a backbone and are not afraid, we might actually get
• 12:49
  some more people too. Join the union to vote.
• 12:54
  And here I go. Bring our numbers up 9% from my
• 13:04
  state, 16% for the national. I'm sorry, these numbers are for
• 13:14
  beginners. We're not beginners.
• 13:17
  We've been doing this shit for over 100 years.
• 13:19
  People step it up, end of rent. No, you're right.
• 13:28
  And we got to step up to protect our carriers.
• 13:31
  I had a carrier talk to me about management forcing carriers to
• 13:35
  use a vehicle that had minimal braking power like you put it to
• 13:41
  the floor braking power. 1767 off the jump.
• 13:46
  Exactly. And when these carriers were
• 13:51
  reaching out, they're like, I talked to my union
• 13:53
  representative and they said, just do what management says and
• 13:57
  write it up when you get back. What the hell?
• 14:02
  I know. No, no.
• 14:03
  What what you do if something is that asinine, you say?
• 14:07
  I want that in writing. Why?
• 14:09
  So when I'm in the ditch, when I wreck, when I go to hit the
• 14:12
  brakes, I have something to fall back on.
• 14:17
  Yeah, but what if you don't go in the ditch?
• 14:19
  What if you get creamed by a tractor trailer or you know
• 14:22
  something, you know, a utility truck?
• 14:24
  Yeah, you don't. You don't step foot in that damn
• 14:27
  vehicle if it's that bad. Yeah, What if you were rear in
• 14:30
  somebody? What if you pull it pull into a
• 14:32
  customer's driveway that turns around and you end up smacking
• 14:34
  their car? Exactly.
• 14:37
  You know, there's things you got to think about beyond just the
• 14:40
  scope of, you know, oh, it takes me a while to stop.
• 14:45
  You got to think what what's going to stop you if you can't?
• 14:49
  You know, and that segues right into wearing your seat belt.
• 14:53
  I know management harps on that. And I know it makes us sound
• 14:55
  like management we when we harp on that.
• 14:58
  But it's important that you do. Those few seconds it takes for
• 15:04
  you to latch that seat belt is a matter of life and death.
• 15:09
  Now being that I am a former firefighter, I can tell you
• 15:12
  people have died not wearing their seat belt in a 20 mile an
• 15:17
  hour crash. And somebody has survived a
• 15:21
  crash with a closing speed of 120 miles an hour, as two
• 15:26
  vehicles going 60 miles an hour on average towards each other
• 15:30
  has survived because they were wearing their seat belt.
• 15:35
  Think about. It like oh.
• 15:37
  Sorry, James. You know, go ahead.
• 15:41
  Think about this, if you're saying, oh I don't want to wear
• 15:43
  that seat belt, I'm only going such and such distance, which
• 15:47
  would you rather have? A headstone or a little bit of
• 15:51
  soreness on your chest with the seat belt dug into you to save
• 15:54
  your ass. Yeah, it's going to cause a
• 15:58
  little bruising, maybe, maybe break a rib at most, but that's
• 16:04
  a heck of a lot better. Sure, you're going to be in pain
• 16:06
  for a little while, but it's a lot better than permanent
• 16:09
  removal from the society. Yeah.
• 16:14
  But you know, and that's in the airbags.
• 16:18
  Why do you think they call them supplemental restraint?
• 16:21
  They're to supplement your seat belt.
• 16:26
  It's to prevent you from actually getting whiplash and
• 16:29
  concuss too much from the car accident while wearing your seat
• 16:33
  belt. For those of those of us that
• 16:36
  drive personal vehicles with airbags or ones that are driving
• 16:40
  the Metris or other newer models of vehicles that actually have
• 16:44
  airbags. And another thing you have to
• 16:52
  think about is look at all the stuff that's happening around
• 16:56
  this nation right now. The flooding in Texas.
• 17:01
  I saw an image of the post office that was completely
• 17:03
  leveled from the flooding. Yeah.
• 17:06
  Yeah. Think of the flooding in North
• 17:09
  Carolina. Think of the flooding in
• 17:12
  Kentucky and Tennessee, things like that.
• 17:15
  Your safety is #1 keeping an eye on the weather forecast,
• 17:20
  although they're getting a little more sporadic on the
• 17:23
  accuracy worse than they were before.
• 17:26
  You know, it's important to know what's coming.
• 17:29
  It's important to know what keeps you safe because you're
• 17:34
  the only one that matters. We keep telling you you're the
• 17:37
  only one that matters on your safety.
• 17:40
  Whether it's in the office, in the vehicle, or even out of the
• 17:44
  office, you are in charge of yourself and your own safety.
• 17:54
  Amen. Amen.
• 17:57
  And I bring that up because just yesterday, at the time of
• 18:02
  recording of this podcast, a person drowned at an address on
• 18:09
  my route. It wasn't my customer at that
• 18:12
  address, but it was in front of that address on the lake.
• 18:18
  Even outside of the office, you got to think of your safety.
• 18:29
  I second that. Yeah, there was another video,
• 18:34
  James, showing a post office with the the mattresses and LL
• 18:38
  VS with water up to their grills.
• 18:42
  They're going OK They're not going out Monday.
• 18:48
  No, but that, yeah, that little post office, it just, it washed
• 18:51
  the whole building away. Yeah, a brick building washed
• 18:56
  away. It's a force of water and you
• 19:00
  got to turn around. Don't drown.
• 19:03
  Yep, and it these are statistics on this.
• 19:08
  A half a foot of running water will knock you off your feet.
• 19:15
  A foot of running water brushing water could wash away a car.
• 19:21
  As soon as it gets up to the frame of the car, it starts
• 19:25
  exerting pressure on a larger surface area of the car.
• 19:29
  Plus the air in the tires, even though the car is 4000 lbs does
• 19:34
  help it float a little bit. And the shape of the body
• 19:37
  styling. Kind of like a boat.
• 19:40
  That's why when you see cars in floodwaters, they're usually
• 19:43
  floating with the engine part down, because that's the
• 19:45
  heaviest part of the car, but the rest of the car is sticking
• 19:47
  up out of the water. That reminds me of a great
• 19:53
  segue. Again, James, if you're in that
• 19:56
  situation, always move to the back seat because that's the
• 20:00
  highest elevation in that vehicle and the back window is
• 20:04
  the easier to break. Yes, a lot of modern cars now
• 20:09
  have the laminate glass and the windows and the driver and
• 20:14
  passenger windows in the front. The rear glass is usually
• 20:18
  tempered and easier to break, and if it has power windows and
• 20:23
  the car still has power, you have the opportunity to open the
• 20:26
  window to get out of the car. If it doesn't or if it has
• 20:30
  manual that makes it easier. But if not the seat, the driver
• 20:36
  and passenger seat, head rest if they come, if they move up and
• 20:40
  down on on metal poles. One of those poles has a point
• 20:44
  on it you can use to break the glass, but make sure you do it
• 20:47
  in the corner of the glass, not in the center of it.
• 20:53
  The more you know. Thanks.
• 20:57
  It's everyday safety, yes, you know, you, you drive off a rain
• 21:01
  slick Rd. At night, end up in a pond or a
• 21:03
  lake or or a river, you know, there you go, you got your outs.
• 21:09
  You got a way to get yourself at least out of the car, which if
• 21:12
  you stay in, it's going to drown you, but you have a way to get
• 21:16
  out possibly. But we do pray for everybody
• 21:23
  down in Texas. And as a reminder, as we always
• 21:29
  do, Postal Employee Relief Fund help your fellow brothers and
• 21:35
  sisters of the craft with Postal Employee Relief Fund perf.
• 21:41
  Because with all these natural disasters going on and issues
• 21:45
  going on around the country, now more than ever, carriers are
• 21:49
  going to need that assistance, especially with carriers that
• 21:53
  are living paycheck to paycheck. Those on Table 2, those RCASPTS
• 21:58
  that aren't working six days a week, we got to do something to
• 22:03
  help them out and the Postal Employee Relief Fund is the best
• 22:06
  way to do it. So make sure you're helping your
• 22:09
  fellow brothers and sisters out there with it.
• 22:12
  James, May I put in for a moment?
• 22:15
  Of course. I'm on the Postal relief.com
• 22:19
  again, postalrelief.com website, and they actually have a counter
• 22:25
  toward the bottom of the page that says as of right now, 743
• 22:30
  on Sunday, six families are in need of assistance right now.
• 22:34
  So that could be some of our brothers and sisters down in
• 22:37
  Texas or they could be out in California where they have a
• 22:40
  wildfire burning, who knows. But we encourage everybody to
• 22:45
  donate to PERF. And if you need to access PERF
• 22:50
  Again website ispostalrelief.com.
• 22:58
  You know, don't put yourself at risk out there with any of this.
• 23:03
  If the road's flooded, don't try to attempt delivery.
• 23:07
  We've seen videos of of carriers driving LLV's through
• 23:11
  floodwaters and stuff like that. I'm going to tell you this,
• 23:14
  especially in cities where you have sewer and.
• 23:21
  Storm drains. Storm drains and things like
• 23:24
  that, those can actually get so overwhelmed, they actually start
• 23:31
  collapsing. And if and even though they're
• 23:34
  like full of water, that water can seep out from around that
• 23:38
  pipe, especially under high pressure, and actually create a
• 23:42
  sinkhole under underneath where that water is escaping from that
• 23:46
  pipe. And when that happens, the road
• 23:49
  beneath it collapses. And if it's covered in water,
• 23:52
  you're not going to see it. And if they have sewer lines
• 23:54
  under there, there's a possibility the water you're
• 23:57
  driving through has sewage in it, raw sewage.
• 24:01
  And if you're in Texas, it could have fire ants floating on the
• 24:06
  surface of it. And if you drive an LLV through
• 24:09
  there, those fire ants are going to see that LLV and be like,
• 24:12
  hey, dry ground and climb all up on that thing.
• 24:21
  Take care of yourself, keep yourself safe.
• 24:23
  Don't put yourself in a situation where there's a
• 24:26
  possibility you could get hurt, because what do you say at the
• 24:29
  end of the episode? Usually Bill.
• 24:32
  You're the most important delivery of the day.
• 24:36
  Get home to your loved ones. Exactly.
• 24:41
  Your job can be replaced. You can't.
• 24:43
  And, and you're right, you know, in the summer, this is one of
• 24:51
  the times of the year that, you know, a lot of people don't pay
• 24:54
  attention. They're out camping,
• 24:55
  backpacking. They don't pay attention to the
• 24:58
  wildlife that's in the area, whether it be snakes or
• 25:01
  scorpions, black widows, bears, coyotes.
• 25:06
  I mean, you know, coyotes have been known to to try to carry
• 25:09
  off children. So, I mean, you know, depending
• 25:12
  on what part of the country you live in, you have different, you
• 25:15
  know, dangers that you have to respect and be aware of.
• 25:19
  And this is an everyday occurrence.
• 25:21
  Like, you know, if you're you're a suburban person, then you have
• 25:25
  a in ground pool. You have to be careful about
• 25:27
  children around the water. And you know, the, the fact of
• 25:32
  the matter is that I'm just sitting here and, and I'm
• 25:35
  screaming bloody murder because this storm hit with such
• 25:39
  ferocity. And yet all the alerts didn't go
• 25:42
  out on the phones. Well, if you can put amber
• 25:45
  alerts out on my phone, you know, once a week, I'm sure you
• 25:48
  can post weather emergencies on the phones also using the same
• 25:51
  system. The time of day may have
• 25:54
  affected it. You know, the, the severity may
• 25:57
  have affected the videos I've seen where they, they had
• 26:03
  basically air raid sirens going off in several little towns.
• 26:10
  You know, if you're in a low lying area, if you're along the
• 26:13
  riverbank, you've got to get to high ground.
• 26:17
  I mean, I, I, I saw a lady where she was clinging to a pole in
• 26:22
  her car. Fine, hold on to the pole while
• 26:27
  the water was trying to sweep her car away from, you know,
• 26:29
  with her in it. And, and I'm just sitting there
• 26:32
  like, you know, oh God's sakes, get rid of the car lady.
• 26:35
  You know, I, I, I, I stopped probably counting around 30
• 26:40
  people being rescued in trees as the rivers are raging down and,
• 26:45
  you know, around them if the force of water is nothing to
• 26:52
  even joke about. And yeah, like somebody said,
• 26:55
  you know, if if you, if you see it, you know, water turn around,
• 26:59
  don't drown that that's a plain simple.
• 27:05
  Do not cross a road with water. You don't know if the roadbed is
• 27:10
  still there. You don't know how fast that
• 27:12
  water is coming. You don't know how deep it is at
• 27:15
  that point. Even if you drive it every day
• 27:18
  on your route, you are more or less ambiguous in regards to the
• 27:25
  terrain until it changes. And then when it changes, you're
• 27:29
  guessing because, oh, I drive that way every day, yes, but you
• 27:35
  don't drive that way every day with water rushing across it.
• 27:40
  And on top of that, a lot go. Into water.
• 27:43
  Go ahead. Yeah.
• 27:44
  On top of that, a lot of places like that where you have a low
• 27:48
  water crossing just up the road of that low water crossing, it's
• 27:53
  a little bit, the road goes up a little bit.
• 27:55
  There's the pipe that allows the water to actually pass under the
• 27:59
  road, the culvert pipe. If the water is going over the
• 28:05
  road there is a high likelihood it is percolating around that
• 28:11
  culvert and could wash that culvert out.
• 28:13
  There's plenty of videos out on YouTube of culverts literally
• 28:17
  getting washed out under the road where the water is only
• 28:21
  crossing beyond where the culvert is.
• 28:24
  But all of a sudden you see the pavement just start getting
• 28:27
  ripped up as this culvert literally gets flipped over in
• 28:31
  front of the roadway and the the culvert's gone and the road is
• 28:35
  gone where the culvert was. And you never know when that's
• 28:39
  going to happen. And again, that's that's where
• 28:40
  subduction occurs. And you could get a sinkhole and
• 28:43
  sink through the roadway into that culvert.
• 28:47
  And some of these culverts are almost big enough to drive a car
• 28:50
  through in some instances. So, and talking about not having
• 29:00
  an alert there, I just want to clear the air on behalf of my
• 29:04
  fellow meteorologist and storm enthusiasts out there.
• 29:11
  They had issued A hydrologic flood outlook Thursday morning
• 29:17
  with a flash flood potential, and then a flood watch was
• 29:21
  issued at 1:18 PM on Thursday. In effect through Friday
• 29:25
  morning, the Weather Prediction Center issued 3 heavy rain event
• 29:32
  alerts all the way through this, indicating the potential for
• 29:38
  flash flooding, and they issued A hydrologic discussion, a
• 29:44
  rainfall discussion at 6:22 PM Central Daylight Time at
• 29:49
  Thursday. Message locally considerable
• 29:53
  flood wording for areas north and West of San Antonio,
• 29:56
  including Kerrville. The first flash flood warning
• 29:59
  was issued at 11:41 PM Thursday for Bandera County.
• 30:05
  At 1:14 AM flash flood warning with a considerable tag was
• 30:10
  issued for Bandera and Kerr counties.
• 30:13
  Flash flood warnings with the impact based warning tags
• 30:16
  considerable or catastrophic were issued and they will
• 30:21
  automatically issue wireless emergency alerts on enabled
• 30:26
  mobile devices now. The first reports from the Kerr
• 30:32
  County Sheriff's Office of flooding was at 4:35 AM.
• 30:37
  Flash flooding was upgraded to a flash flood emergency for Kerr
• 30:41
  County, including Hunt, as early as four O 3 AM 5:00 AM
• 30:45
  Hydrologic Discussion 146 Concern for widespread authority
• 30:50
  flooding throughout the day and a flash flood emergency was
• 30:54
  issued for the Guadalupe River at 5:34 AM.
• 30:58
  So there were alerts out there before people get Grayling on
• 31:05
  the National Weather Service for it.
• 31:07
  Yes, people can say meteorologist is the only job
• 31:12
  where you can be wrong half the time and still keep your job,
• 31:15
  but they were on point with this.
• 31:19
  The problem is 1 apathy, 2 people not heating the alerts
• 31:28
  and three businesses and local agencies not heating these
• 31:36
  alerts. Now, I do have a report that
• 31:41
  Kerr County had no flood warning system for this area, even
• 31:47
  though it floods on a quite a few times recently that I know
• 31:52
  of. So it's one of those things.
• 31:57
  And they said that the reason why they don't have it is
• 32:00
  because of the cost of it. But yeah, I, I.
• 32:05
  I I read that also that the the actual citizens of that area
• 32:11
  voted against it because of the cost.
• 32:14
  Yes. And it's one of those things
• 32:18
  that even though you could do everything right, it's still a
• 32:23
  possibility that something like this could happen.
• 32:26
  It's less likely if you do everything right.
• 32:29
  But there were systems available.
• 32:34
  Not only do you have the wireless emergency alerts, and I
• 32:37
  will tell you, people turn them off on their phones.
• 32:43
  People actually set those alerts off.
• 32:45
  The only ones you can't turn off are presidential alerts and that
• 32:51
  was before anybody got anybody specific got elected to the
• 32:55
  offices. When wireless emergency alerts
• 32:57
  started that you couldn't turn off presidential alerts, which
• 33:01
  would be national emergency. The other way is to have
• 33:07
  dedicated weather apps with alerting on them.
• 33:14
  And then the third way is to have a NOAA weather radio tuned
• 33:21
  to the local frequency. And granted, they're only up
• 33:26
  about 95% of the time because they're either down for
• 33:29
  maintenance. They use phone lines to get the
• 33:33
  alerts out and then a radio broadcaster to send them out to
• 33:37
  everybody. But that is another great way to
• 33:41
  get the alerts. Plus you can also get a weather
• 33:43
  forecast off of them as well. And some of them are plug in,
• 33:50
  you can plug them into house power and if the power goes out,
• 33:52
  they operate on batteries or you can get just stand alone battery
• 33:56
  operated one. Just make sure you change the
• 33:59
  batteries frequently to make sure that they're fresh.
• 34:02
  But make sure you have a way to get those alerts because even
• 34:07
  myself, somebody who's passionate about the weather and
• 34:12
  loves looking at the weather and studying the weather and
• 34:15
  figuring out what the weather's doing, I have multiple ways to
• 34:19
  get alerts because I want to know if it's going to impact.
• 34:25
  And you said too, especially those that have to stand out at
• 34:30
  CB US or are in an aluminum tin can like the LLV.
• 34:36
  And even if we're in a vehicle, because the vehicle's not going
• 34:38
  to survive a flood or a tornado. Not that I'm a not that I'm a
• 34:46
  doomsday prepper per SE, but you know, one of the best things you
• 34:51
  can possibly get is a tactical weather radio.
• 34:58
  It's a hand crank system. And you know, that way you don't
• 35:01
  have to worry about the batteries or anything.
• 35:04
  And whenever I go out, you know, foraging into the woods that I
• 35:08
  do, that's with me because you don't know what's going to
• 35:13
  happen at any moment. We had a situation here 2 weeks
• 35:16
  ago where we got caught in a rainstorm and they were not
• 35:21
  predicting anything horrendous per SE, but they did advise
• 35:27
  because of the ground saturation already that trees were, you
• 35:30
  know, likely to come over and all.
• 35:33
  And that the fact that the wind gusts were going to go up to 60
• 35:36
  miles an hour. Well, you know, 120,000 people
• 35:41
  later, you know, they were trying to get their power back
• 35:44
  on because it happened exactly like that.
• 35:47
  The power, you know, power went out from tree limbs and trees
• 35:50
  themselves going down on top of the power lines.
• 35:54
  How do you find out what's going on?
• 35:56
  It one of these cranked radio systems that will give you
• 36:01
  national emergency broadcast as well as weather forecast.
• 36:06
  It's they're, they're cheap. They're like under $50.
• 36:09
  And if your life isn't worth $50, then you know shame on you.
• 36:25
  Josh, you want to add to that? Pretty pretty certain y'all
• 36:30
  covered it all. I mean, it's, and we have to tie
• 36:35
  personal safety into this. Make sure that even if it's a
• 36:40
  nice sunny day, always have something with you.
• 36:44
  If you have to sit in that vehicle for a long time, let's
• 36:46
  say it's 75° and it's a nice day, but you always need to have
• 36:54
  something to like take a drink of.
• 36:56
  Let's say your vehicle breaks down and the tow truck may not
• 36:59
  be there for two or three hours and you're in the middle of
• 37:02
  nowhere. You always have to prepare for
• 37:05
  stuff. You have to be aware of where
• 37:08
  your route runs and where you can go to call for assistance
• 37:13
  you'd be or if you're just if you have a really real route.
• 37:19
  So but y'all pretty much covered everything that.
• 37:26
  Was funny because when you when you say, when you say that being
• 37:31
  prepared when I worked during the summertime, I usually had 6
• 37:37
  to 8 bottles of water with me. You have 4 frozen, 4 cold.
• 37:41
  And when I come back at the end of the day and I still have two
• 37:44
  frozen and two unfrozen, my wife goes well, why do you need to
• 37:47
  carry so many here just in case I break down because of the fact
• 37:52
  that I'm driving, you know, a 3540 year old vehicle.
• 37:56
  And if I break down and I have to wait for a tow truck, you
• 37:59
  know, I may not be an area now where my route is.
• 38:03
  I, I didn't have too many areas where I could be stranded
• 38:05
  without being able to walk to a residence.
• 38:08
  Yeah. You got these people out in
• 38:09
  Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Wyoming and all.
• 38:12
  I mean, you know, Texas, it's as big as that state is and as hot
• 38:17
  as it is. You know, you need to make sure
• 38:19
  that you're responsible for your own survival.
• 38:23
  And that means making sure you have plenty of foods.
• 38:28
  You're right, You're right. Exactly right.
• 38:30
  And I mean, even in the middle of Montana and Nebraska and
• 38:36
  North Dakota, South Dakota, those areas, you guys are
• 38:39
  experiencing a lot of the heat too, in some places hotter than
• 38:42
  you guys normally get. It's the same for you guys too.
• 38:47
  And it's crazy to think that we have to talk about that for far
• 38:53
  northern states, but it it's true too for them.
• 38:58
  But now we have to get into a major deep discussion here.
• 39:04
  And this is something I've been noticing lately on social media.
• 39:09
  And it's kind of disheartening. But after the tentative
• 39:14
  agreement came out, the conversations on social media
• 39:20
  have really, really dampened. A lot of people have stopped
• 39:26
  commenting, replying to people, things like that, as if the
• 39:30
  camaraderie had died. With the tentative agreement
• 39:34
  being passed. We can't stop.
• 39:40
  We can't take our foot off the gas on this.
• 39:43
  We need to keep pushing for reforms.
• 39:46
  Yes, the tentative agreement, the lack of participation in
• 39:50
  that was a shot in the gut, and our president is the first one
• 39:55
  in line to take the blame for that in terms of the lack of
• 39:58
  people wanting to vote. But it is also telling that
• 40:07
  there were more no votes in that less amount of people replying
• 40:14
  than there was in the 2022 vote. More people voted no, even with
• 40:20
  less people voting. Then in 2022, that means people
• 40:25
  were paying attention, People were voting no on this.
• 40:29
  Even people who had probably voted yes in 2022 voted no this
• 40:33
  time. So don't get disheartened, Don't
• 40:36
  get discouraged by the fact that the national board got a small
• 40:42
  victory here, and it is a small victory.
• 40:47
  We need to hold them to task. We need to stand up and we need
• 40:51
  to keep pushing and we need to keep helping our fellow brothers
• 40:54
  and sisters on social media and in our offices and in our areas
• 41:01
  across this nation. There are carriers that need
• 41:03
  help. There are carriers that need us
• 41:05
  to help them, and we need to be the one stepping up to do it.
• 41:09
  Every single person that's listening to us needs to step
• 41:12
  up. Go ahead, Josh.
• 41:14
  May I play devil's advocate? Please do.
• 41:18
  Why do I need to join the union? They have to.
• 41:21
  They have to represent me for free anyway.
• 41:25
  Bill, you take that one. All right, that's true.
• 41:30
  We have to represent you in, in you know, matters of discipline
• 41:34
  or or contractual violations. What we don't have to do is
• 41:38
  provide you any information in regards to what where the
• 41:42
  union's doing on your behalf. So therefore, whether or not you
• 41:47
  know you're you're going to be a cab or a freeloader, as Don
• 41:52
  Madsen would say, you're going to take whatever we decide is
• 41:56
  best for you and you have no say in it.
• 41:59
  You also have no vote, no voice in who your elected delegates
• 42:04
  are in going to the National Convention because contrary what
• 42:08
  James says in regards to what Madison and the national board
• 42:12
  selects force, it is the delegates at the National
• 42:15
  Convention who decide who's going to represent you.
• 42:21
  Not, not the national board. They're the ones who are being
• 42:24
  elected, but the delegates, those retirees that are just
• 42:29
  getting, you know, break vacations out of this.
• 42:31
  And there are some good retirees.
• 42:33
  Those are going along because they're part of the national
• 42:36
  steward system. And they have to be there
• 42:39
  because guess what? Their paycheck is dictated by
• 42:43
  those on the national board. They got guaranteed salaries.
• 42:48
  And guess what? If you're a 47 K, you're being
• 42:51
  cut. If you're a 48K, you're being
• 42:53
  cut. But they're getting paid out of
• 42:55
  48K. How much sense does that make?
• 42:59
  And if you don't want to be a union member because you know
• 43:02
  the fact that we have to represent you for free, don't
• 43:05
  forget this. You don't get the information
• 43:09
  from the union or your local meetings or your state
• 43:13
  conventions or your boosters where you find out where your
• 43:18
  rights are being violated, where the contract is being stomped
• 43:22
  into the ground because you're not a member information.
• 43:30
  If you control the information, if you control the the diet
• 43:34
  diatribe that that the national media has the news stations and
• 43:38
  all. If you follow all that, guess
• 43:40
  what? You're getting half the
• 43:42
  information because more than half of the the national news
• 43:47
  agencies are biased in someone way or another.
• 43:50
  Reminds me when Walter Concrete used to do the news and then
• 43:53
  Walter Concrete would report the news and never offered an
• 43:57
  opinion about it because that was not his job to sway you to
• 44:02
  his thinking. When you are a non union member,
• 44:07
  you have no right to the information that you could
• 44:10
  utilize to protect yourself to learn about your route about
• 44:15
  Rex. That information is supposed to
• 44:18
  be provided to you by management.
• 44:20
  How many people out there have gotten management in management
• 44:22
  to provide them any information on Rex let alone post the the
• 44:27
  PTRS or the radar reports on a daily basis.
• 44:32
  How many people who aren't in the union, it's stopped on
• 44:36
  because they don't know the contract, the M38, the PO63, the
• 44:41
  Elm, they, they have no access to this information.
• 44:50
  Now if you're a union member, you have full access to this.
• 44:54
  Does it give you any more rights to be represented?
• 44:57
  No. Let me tell you something.
• 45:00
  There is then there shouldn't be.
• 45:02
  But there is bias towards representing non members.
• 45:07
  I have seen it. I've never done it because of
• 45:10
  the fact that I'm a defense attorney and I have to represent
• 45:12
  all my clients equally to the best of my ability.
• 45:16
  And it gives me a great deal of satisfaction.
• 45:18
  Yeah, and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction of putting
• 45:21
  it to management. But the fact of the matter is,
• 45:24
  if you are ignorant of your rights of the contract, of the
• 45:28
  language that protects you, then you're setting yourself up to be
• 45:32
  a victim. If you don't get involved, if
• 45:35
  you don't have a voice to vote, then you have no right to
• 45:38
  complain about what you get in the contract because you did not
• 45:43
  participate. You did not help change the
• 45:45
  course of this union. You did not help select the
• 45:48
  correct delegates to go to the National Convention.
• 45:51
  Who are the ones? They are your voice in regards
• 45:55
  to changing the national board to getting people elected who
• 45:59
  represent your views and your interests.
• 46:02
  And the only way you want to do that is if you're you're dues
• 46:05
  paying member. Go ahead.
• 46:08
  I'll let you interrupt there, Mister North Carolina.
• 46:11
  OK, Remember, each one of us that are delegates of the
• 46:16
  National Convention are representing the hopes and
• 46:22
  desires of about 100 people. So let me just say this.
• 46:30
  Yes, I am being paid to go to the National Convention.
• 46:33
  No, it will not be a vacation. At the forefront of my mind will
• 46:40
  be the 100 or so people in my state of North Carolina that I'm
• 46:44
  representing. I make to make that a promise to
• 46:47
  y'all because at the end of the day they selected me because
• 46:54
  they thought that I would represent what they wanted and
• 47:01
  it is my duty and my honor to live up to that.
• 47:07
  Now you have people that brag and say, oh, I'm getting paid to
• 47:11
  go on vacation. OK, Bill and James, we had some
• 47:18
  fun last year at Reno, but most that was maybe 5, maybe 5% of
• 47:24
  our time, if that. What was the other 97%?
• 47:29
  It was work. Work.
• 47:31
  Yeah. Getting ready for caucus night,
• 47:34
  going over to resolutions, running down to the Costco to
• 47:37
  get snacks for caucus night, getting ready for caucus night,
• 47:41
  getting your speeches ready, talking to people on the floor,
• 47:44
  manning our booze, handing out T-shirts, information, getting
• 47:47
  the feel for the floor. Yeah.
• 47:50
  Yeah. Oh, God, yeah.
• 47:51
  We had a great time. I mean, the only time we
• 47:53
  actually dropped our guard, per SE was after caucus night.
• 47:58
  Once caucus night is finished, it's basically in the hands of
• 48:01
  the body. You can do work the next day on
• 48:05
  some of the resolutions and everything that they'll be
• 48:08
  talking about, but in between, you know, in between the voting.
• 48:11
  But otherwise, everything else is done.
• 48:14
  Yeah. You.
• 48:15
  You stayed up to 1:30 at night arguing about resolutions being
• 48:19
  submitted. You're arguing about the
• 48:22
  language in the resolutions. You're looking for amendments.
• 48:25
  We're voting on the amendment, not the resolution, just the
• 48:28
  amendment to the resolution and then voting on the resolution.
• 48:33
  In the past, we're voting on the amended resolution.
• 48:37
  Yeah, and I, I'm telling you, you know, it's, it's one of
• 48:41
  those things where we just had our state convention and, and
• 48:44
  two, two individuals well known in our state convention posted
• 48:48
  the picture of yo hoisting yo tall beers at A at a local
• 48:53
  watering hole. And it's like, OK, that's nice,
• 48:56
  you know, and but it gives the wrong perception of what we
• 48:59
  actually do there. And, you know, it's the
• 49:04
  convention, the mini National Convention, but we still do the,
• 49:08
  you know, the the resolutions and everything else.
• 49:11
  And you see the politicking, you know, going on, the state
• 49:15
  president coming over to me going, are you, are you really
• 49:17
  going to run against me this year?
• 49:18
  No, I'm not running against you this year.
• 49:22
  But yeah, the the fear in her eyes was that, you know, she
• 49:25
  would lose her position. I like what Frequency said.
• 49:31
  For those that are listening to the recording, do I have
• 49:34
  permission to read it from y'all?
• 49:37
  Go ahead for it. OK, she says 8 hours of
• 49:39
  meetings, maybe 90 minutes a day preparing slash wrapping up for
• 49:43
  meetings, hopefully an hour to eat in the in the day instead of
• 49:47
  depending on dinner, 90 minutes walking and sleep.
• 49:51
  That's yeah, that's it. I'm going to amend that, OK?
• 49:57
  Because when there are a couple of days on there that not only
• 50:03
  are you doing that specifically, you're also going back to your
• 50:07
  room or going to the dinner place or restaurant or maybe
• 50:13
  down to a little lobby or wherever, sitting down and
• 50:18
  having discussions about the resolutions.
• 50:20
  Like when Bill Christie and I were in Grand Rapids, we went
• 50:25
  and sat along Grand River right outside of the hotel and
• 50:28
  Convention Center at a table there.
• 50:31
  And we were going through the resolutions and we were out
• 50:33
  there what 11/11/30 night, 1130 midnight doing that, you know,
• 50:40
  and while Bill, he doesn't sleep until the resolutions have all
• 50:45
  been gone through in his room. So there there are people that
• 50:51
  do actually believe that this is a position where they actually
• 50:56
  have to step up and do something and actually make a difference
• 51:01
  for this craft. Right or wrong, if they step up
• 51:05
  to that mic to talk about it, I give them props because it takes
• 51:10
  a lot of guts to stand up, step up and talk on that mic in front
• 51:16
  of a national 1500 people, you know, and like at my state
• 51:25
  convention, we had a little over 100 people there and 1st timers
• 51:31
  were stepping up the bike to talk about resolutions that were
• 51:34
  presented. So some of these people are
• 51:39
  passionate about doing this, others may, maybe, maybe not.
• 51:45
  I don't know them personally. I can't say specifically, but
• 51:48
  you can recognize the passionate ones because they're paying
• 51:51
  attention, they're taking notes, they're watching what's going on
• 51:54
  around the room. They're watching what people are
• 51:55
  saying. They're listening attentively to
• 51:58
  what's being said. Some people come in there and
• 52:02
  they're fooling around on their phones.
• 52:04
  They're. Yeah.
• 52:10
  And then you have the somebody said falling asleep, you know,
• 52:16
  but and then when somebody says something that's matching what
• 52:22
  you normally say, they all turn and look at you.
• 52:26
  I'll talk about that as the original conferences, all the
• 52:29
  people looking at me when specific statements were made,
• 52:35
  but. Slack last year and.
• 52:44
  It's one of those things that, you know, it's, it's amazing to
• 52:49
  watch the different mindsets of people who when they're talking
• 52:53
  about these things on the mic and having that passion for this
• 52:57
  craft, whether it is positive, negative, whatever, at least
• 53:05
  they're saying something and stepping up to say something.
• 53:08
  You know, everybody brings a different idea to what these
• 53:12
  things are. And it's amazing to also
• 53:16
  understand how different areas think about things.
• 53:20
  You know, whereas Texas may not think about having snow tires on
• 53:25
  on their government vehicles. But at the same time, people in
• 53:32
  cooler climates may think AC is a luxury, whereas in Texas it's
• 53:37
  it's a necessity. But it's one of those very
• 53:45
  important influential things. And those resolutions that we
• 53:49
  passed, especially the ones that affect our contract, we put
• 53:54
  forth on good faith that our national board is going to take
• 53:58
  them and use them to help better our position, not just throw
• 54:03
  them in the trash can. Yeah, that that that bothers me
• 54:15
  in regards to the resolutions specifically because of the fact
• 54:20
  that you get these resolutions, several hundred of them passed
• 54:23
  by various individuals in in different States and then the
• 54:28
  National Board gets them and indiscriminately decide Jay or
• 54:31
  Nay to present them. If you're supposed to represent
• 54:36
  us, shouldn't you be representing the resolutions
• 54:39
  that that have value to us? Not for, you know,
• 54:43
  indiscriminate determination on your part to say, oh, this
• 54:47
  doesn't affect enough people. If it affects one person, it's a
• 54:51
  valid resolution. If it affects 5 carriers, it's a
• 54:56
  valid resolution because you cannot afford to lose 1 craft
• 55:03
  member ever. So take that to court and say,
• 55:09
  Your Honor, I like to present my case that they're failing to
• 55:13
  duly represent the craft. And somebody made the comment
• 55:21
  that most of the objections were the same 2 dozenish people.
• 55:24
  I'm one of them. But there were people that
• 55:29
  didn't step up to object that stood up and discussed those
• 55:34
  resolutions. That's another another aspect of
• 55:38
  that as well. You know, there were, I think a
• 55:42
  couple of we had passed a ruling that only the objector and the
• 55:47
  creator speak on them, but we could motion to suspend the
• 55:52
  rules to actually have a discussion on that.
• 55:54
  We did that a couple of times to actually discuss in depth more
• 55:59
  on these resolutions to give people a more broader
• 56:02
  perspective on what they're voting on.
• 56:05
  Now, granted, I love the fact that we flew through them like
• 56:07
  that. They made it easier, but at the
• 56:10
  same time, sometimes that discussion is warranted.
• 56:18
  Especially if an amended form of the language is presented up on
• 56:22
  the screens. Yeah.
• 56:25
  And a lot of the resolutions, the ones that are on the
• 56:28
  resolution forms aren't allowed to be amended, I believe, I
• 56:33
  believe the only ones that can be amended are ones that are
• 56:35
  submitted under new business that national.
• 56:41
  National, you can amend the language on there, but you have
• 56:44
  to break, take it out and and resubmit it.
• 56:49
  Yeah, it's, it's just the constitutional ones cannot be
• 56:54
  admitted amended once passed by a lower body.
• 56:58
  That's right. Yes, standing rules are in the
• 57:02
  magazine as said in their cap. You know, go through your
• 57:05
  magazine, read what the schedule is.
• 57:09
  Yes, we have a lot of pomp and circumstance in there with with
• 57:12
  the first day of things and specific speakers and things
• 57:16
  like that. Some of them you know like APCU,
• 57:19
  Trestle tree and so on pay to be there.
• 57:24
  They help fund the National Convention, so we have to allow
• 57:29
  them to speak on stage because they're putting enough money
• 57:32
  down for us to to do our National Convention.
• 57:37
  Some people may not agree with that, but you're paying.
• 57:40
  They're paying for the advertising space, basically.
• 57:45
  Well, if you cut the if you cut the payroll of a national
• 57:48
  officers, you can pay for the the convention also.
• 57:53
  It's just an. Idea, there's quite a few things
• 57:56
  you could do. I mean, if you actually
• 57:58
  supported the craft correctly across the nation, you'd have
• 58:01
  enough dues paying members that you wouldn't have to worry about
• 58:04
  the covering the cost of National Convention.
• 58:06
  Because you'd have enough dues paying money coming in to not
• 58:08
  only cover National Convention, but cover all your grievances
• 58:11
  that you have to deal with across the nation.
• 58:13
  Because a craft that actually feels well represented will more
• 58:17
  likely step up to fight against management when management's
• 58:20
  doing something wrong. So and then once you get all
• 58:25
  these people standing up and fighting against management,
• 58:27
  management's going to finally tuck tail and trot when it comes
• 58:31
  to doing things wrong. So you'll actually lower the
• 58:36
  amount of money you're spending on grievances because the craft
• 58:39
  has stood up and management finally backed down.
• 58:45
  You have to spend your money and save money.
• 58:48
  And and if you're settling at the local level with the local
• 58:51
  steward, you're not spending any money at all.
• 58:57
  I I will. On the subject of the National
• 58:59
  Convention, may I interject something?
• 59:03
  You don't have to keep asking, just interject.
• 59:07
  My mother raised me good. I understand that, but I'm here.
• 59:11
  It's, it's a free form. We're we're just friends here
• 59:15
  talking, so you don't have to ask permission.
• 59:17
  None of us, none of us are above the other.
• 59:20
  OK, so anybody that is listening right now and anybody who is
• 59:25
  listening with this episode goes live, as someone who went to the
• 59:29
  First timers seminar at the National Convention, I am almost
• 59:35
  requiring you to go because if I am not mistaken, our
• 59:40
  parliamentarian will be there, Mr. Jim Slaughter, and he will
• 59:44
  present you the Robert's Rules of Order.
• 59:46
  And that will give you an idea how to navigate some of the
• 59:50
  language that is being used when you're talking about resolutions
• 59:55
  and constitutional changes at the National Convention.
• 59:59
  Because up until then, I never knew what it was to call the
• 1:00:02
  question. There's several things on there
• 1:00:07
  that you need to know, because if the if you want to speak on
• 1:00:12
  something, you have to know what to ask for, otherwise you won't
• 1:00:18
  get what you want. So I'm.
• 1:00:21
  Going to give you, I'm going to give you a handy print out that
• 1:00:24
  tells you what you can and cannot do at the mic.
• 1:00:28
  Can you object to this? Can you interrupt with this?
• 1:00:31
  Can you do this? Can you do that?
• 1:00:33
  That is a great resource and I actually keep it with me even
• 1:00:37
  today just as a reference for myself in case I forget
• 1:00:42
  procedurally what I'm supposed to do.
• 1:00:47
  You know what I mean? Somebody who's done it for
• 1:00:48
  several years now still has to look back and make sure I do
• 1:00:51
  things under the procedural right rules that we're supposed
• 1:00:55
  to do. And also Robert's Rules of
• 1:00:59
  Order, as dry as that is, as dry as that is, not only is that how
• 1:01:05
  our national board operates, that's how your local government
• 1:01:07
  operates, your state government, your national government, most
• 1:01:11
  nonprofit agencies that have a board of directors, that's how
• 1:01:14
  they operate by Robert's Rules of Order.
• 1:01:18
  So it's one of those things that you have to know how to do it
• 1:01:25
  right, So it goes into the record the correct way and
• 1:01:31
  people know exactly what you're talking about.
• 1:01:34
  And also another point of information about the
• 1:01:37
  convention. We may be Rcas, Arcs, PTFS,
• 1:01:44
  retired regulars, whatever. I'm going to say this and I mean
• 1:01:51
  it. I do not want to hear any more
• 1:01:55
  of this petty bullshit of throwing insults at people that
• 1:02:03
  are brave enough to stand up at that mic.
• 1:02:06
  I heard it happened last year and it made me sick.
• 1:02:13
  We all, we are all there for the same reason and whether you
• 1:02:16
  agree with them or not, they have the right to make those
• 1:02:21
  statements. You can step up there and say I
• 1:02:25
  disagree with the previous speakers comments, that they're
• 1:02:29
  bullshit as Josh said, but don't harass your fellow brothers and
• 1:02:37
  sisters. Agree to disagree because we're
• 1:02:43
  all there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to
• 1:02:49
  better the world. Craft make decisions that make
• 1:02:54
  the craft better. Every single person that steps
• 1:02:58
  up to that mic is speaking to the chair on the on the Nash on
• 1:03:02
  the stage. You'll see me, I'll be looking
• 1:03:05
  around the room and stuff like that, but I am still speaking
• 1:03:08
  directly to that guy up on the stage because that is how you're
• 1:03:14
  supposed to do it by Robert's Rules of Order.
• 1:03:18
  And I understand people are passionate and they want to
• 1:03:21
  invoke emotions in their fellow carriers that are on the floor.
• 1:03:26
  But do it by speaking to the chair.
• 1:03:29
  And it doesn't matter if it's the president or if it's the
• 1:03:31
  vice president, because they are the chairs of this.
• 1:03:34
  The vice president stands in for the president.
• 1:03:37
  So the president isn't running the whole thing the whole time.
• 1:03:41
  And also another thing. Before you speak, take a breath,
• 1:03:51
  state your last name, delegate, state your from, and wait for
• 1:03:57
  the chair to recognize you. The chair has to recognize you.
• 1:04:03
  Once the chair recognizes you, pause for a second again.
• 1:04:08
  And the reason I am saying this, our stenographer that writes our
• 1:04:14
  transcript for the convention needs that gap to to delegate
• 1:04:21
  who is speaking in the transcript.
• 1:04:27
  We have to respect that person because they are there from the
• 1:04:31
  time we start to the time we stop.
• 1:04:33
  And the only time they take a break is either when we take a
• 1:04:36
  break or they specifically request they need to have like a
• 1:04:39
  bathroom break or something like that.
• 1:04:43
  So they are one of the most important people there because
• 1:04:46
  the members that can't make it are relying on that transcript
• 1:04:49
  to be accurate. And if we're speaking over top
• 1:04:52
  of each other, it can't be accurate anyway.
• 1:05:02
  Anything else you guys want to add on that?
• 1:05:07
  No, except for get involved, get elected, participate, see how it
• 1:05:13
  goes. I, I took a, a first timer to my
• 1:05:16
  state convention and they're just enthused as hell, seeing
• 1:05:19
  how the process works and everything.
• 1:05:22
  I mean, you know, they're, they're a vigilant union member
• 1:05:26
  and, and, you know, very knowledgeable in regards to the
• 1:05:30
  contract and everything, but they never saw the inner
• 1:05:32
  workings of the the process at a a state convention.
• 1:05:37
  And that's where, you know, if that's where you have to start,
• 1:05:40
  start there, start at the local, start at your boosters.
• 1:05:43
  But get involved and and realize, you know, that the
• 1:05:47
  amount of work that we put in when we do these things, like I
• 1:05:52
  said, I mean, yeah, we go to National Convention that the
• 1:05:56
  only time we have off is at the end of caucus night.
• 1:06:01
  And even then, you know, you're you're turning around and you're
• 1:06:03
  doing some work afterwards. But actually we we let off a
• 1:06:07
  little bit of steam because of the fact that it's been
• 1:06:09
  grueling, grueling for four days.
• 1:06:14
  One day of sheer monotony, which is Monday or Tuesday, but the
• 1:06:18
  the next three days are grueling.
• 1:06:21
  And you know it, it's just, you know, it's a process.
• 1:06:25
  You have to see the belief and realize the amount of effort and
• 1:06:30
  participation people put into, you know, being there and and
• 1:06:34
  being heard. As somebody said in the chat,
• 1:06:40
  also, if you disagree, make sure you take the time to go talk to
• 1:06:44
  that individual and listen to understand them.
• 1:06:49
  Don't listen to respond, listen to understand them because they
• 1:06:54
  just may not be putting it to words in a way some people can
• 1:07:00
  understand. I have, I am guilty of that
• 1:07:03
  myself. I say things that some people
• 1:07:05
  take in the wrong ways or I may say something, but I've meant a
• 1:07:10
  little bit more detail on to it then I actually added.
• 1:07:15
  So sometimes stopping and saying, hey, when you were
• 1:07:18
  talking about that resolution, what exactly did you mean by
• 1:07:21
  that? What exactly were you thinking?
• 1:07:24
  What was your mindset when you were talking about that?
• 1:07:28
  Because maybe you could actually get a deeper understanding of it
• 1:07:32
  by having that side conversation with them.
• 1:07:36
  And maybe you could say, hey, did you think about wording it
• 1:07:39
  this way or oh, I never thought of it that way.
• 1:07:42
  And another thing that was said in the cat, if you're, even if
• 1:07:47
  you're not a delegate, if you're an alternate delegate,
• 1:07:51
  especially you still come to National Convention,
• 1:07:56
  participate, you may not be able to speak at the mic, you may not
• 1:08:01
  be able to vote on anything, but you can help your fellow
• 1:08:07
  delegates make a decision from your state.
• 1:08:12
  You may have the ability to actually influence the vote in
• 1:08:16
  your in your area if you take the time to actually sit down
• 1:08:20
  and discuss that with your fellow brothers and sisters on
• 1:08:23
  the floor or at dinner. You know, I know some of these
• 1:08:28
  states get together and are in their little groups together and
• 1:08:34
  go off and do things together. I know Michigan went out and did
• 1:08:39
  a boat ride out in Reno before the event started.
• 1:08:46
  I unfortunately was arrived too late to go to that.
• 1:08:50
  But that is something that you could do is, is help your fellow
• 1:08:56
  brothers and sisters discussed this thing resolutions too, Even
• 1:09:00
  though you're not a delegate, you can provide insight to them
• 1:09:04
  when you're discussing the resolutions after hours.
• 1:09:07
  And you can learn something. You can learn how the process
• 1:09:10
  works. You can learn how when to and
• 1:09:14
  when not to participate. And I guarantee you a lot of a
• 1:09:18
  lot of these state presidents and vice presidents and so on
• 1:09:22
  would be more than happy to help educate a new carrier at
• 1:09:29
  National Convention on how things work.
• 1:09:32
  I've met many state presidents who are just itching for more
• 1:09:37
  participation from their states. So get involved, come on down.
• 1:09:44
  And hell, you can meet Bill me. Everybody that's been on this
• 1:09:47
  podcast will be there. No, I don't have an.
• 1:09:55
  Yes, Josh, you're invited to. OK.
• 1:09:57
  Yes, Josh, you can come to, but you're going to have to sit in
• 1:10:00
  the booster seat. Oh.
• 1:10:08
  If you can see my face right now, I know.
• 1:10:12
  The face you're making. Grin on my face.
• 1:10:14
  You've ever seen? But no, you can come meet
• 1:10:24
  everybody that's been on this podcast.
• 1:10:26
  They're they're all, all of them should be there.
• 1:10:30
  You know, we're going to be around.
• 1:10:32
  I do have my own table there and there will be other famous
• 1:10:36
  people there. We've alluded to that in
• 1:10:38
  previous episodes. So come on down.
• 1:10:43
  If please try and get time off from work to do it.
• 1:10:46
  As many carriers as we can get down there.
• 1:10:49
  I want to overload this arena. I want a bunch of first timers
• 1:10:52
  there. I want it to be an amazing
• 1:10:55
  experience for everybody. I want it.
• 1:11:00
  Go ahead. Go ahead, Josh.
• 1:11:04
  Here's what I don't want. Notice everybody got real quiet.
• 1:11:10
  I don't want any more one timers.
• 1:11:25
  1st. Timers and last timers.
• 1:11:28
  Yeah, I want first timers. I don't want one timers or last
• 1:11:32
  timers. Yep, and I do know a couple of
• 1:11:36
  them at last year because of specific comments specific
• 1:11:42
  individuals made next to them will not be at this National
• 1:11:48
  Convention. They chose not to be involved
• 1:11:52
  because of the specific racist and sexist comments that came
• 1:12:01
  from the gallery on the floor. Oh Lord.
• 1:12:06
  And I'm I'm calling that out specifically because those
• 1:12:11
  specific people know exactly who they are and should not be
• 1:12:14
  making those comments. We are all one craft.
• 1:12:19
  And the chair should have shut them down also.
• 1:12:24
  Well, immediately. Myself, another delegate and the
• 1:12:29
  chair all made comments to stop that kind of nonsense on the
• 1:12:33
  floor last year. The fact is, those states should
• 1:12:38
  have shut that down by using the chair.
• 1:12:43
  Well, the Chair has the authority to shut them down.
• 1:12:48
  Does the chair have the authority to revoke their status
• 1:12:51
  as a delegate? By vote of the body.
• 1:12:55
  Yes. And.
• 1:12:58
  It and it and it only really egregious.
• 1:13:02
  Yes. And and if I'm not somebody can
• 1:13:05
  correct me with this, but I believe it's only a majority
• 1:13:09
  vote for that. I don't believe it requires the
• 1:13:15
  2/3 like a constitution change. I believe it is only a majority
• 1:13:20
  vote. But if if you are such a person
• 1:13:25
  who can't help themselves to make comments like that came on
• 1:13:30
  you, you're not helping this craft by making those comments.
• 1:13:36
  You're dividing it. Now, I understand that comments
• 1:13:40
  I make about Don Mastin and other individuals I have over
• 1:13:45
  the years may be seen as division No, that is typical
• 1:13:51
  candidacy running for office. At the end of the day, it's the
• 1:13:59
  truth. At the end of the day, it it is.
• 1:14:03
  It is. And at the end of the day, when
• 1:14:07
  this is over, Don Maston is still going to be a rural
• 1:14:11
  carrier, whether you like it or not.
• 1:14:15
  He is still a rural carrier. He is still listed in the United
• 1:14:18
  States Postal Service as a rural carrier since 1999.
• 1:14:25
  And I call a spade a spade. That's what I do.
• 1:14:30
  And at the end of the day, when this is over, I get elected.
• 1:14:35
  I'm still going to respect him as a rural carrier.
• 1:14:39
  And I hope he goes back to run his route because I would like
• 1:14:43
  him to see what choices he's made, has done to this craft, he
• 1:14:49
  and his buddy Dejoy. Thank you.
• 1:14:58
  Because it's too far away from his home, but I'd like him to
• 1:15:02
  just go rent a hotel room nearby where they had offices and run
• 1:15:06
  his route for even just a week. Just a week for it.
• 1:15:13
  Prove me wrong Don. You said you could run the
• 1:15:16
  route. 17 years off a route and you could still fling mail.
• 1:15:21
  I'd like to see you do it. You made that comment.
• 1:15:25
  I'd like to see you do it on your own route.
• 1:15:28
  That is super overburdened and I expect you to be back in less
• 1:15:31
  than 12. Hours.
• 1:15:37
  Yeah, you're, you're killing me here, James, because I have to
• 1:15:39
  bite my tongue from saying something.
• 1:15:42
  Oh, don't bite your tongue. We're amongst friends here.
• 1:15:46
  Don't bite your tongue. How are you going to run your
• 1:15:50
  route when you can't see because your hair dyes?
• 1:15:53
  You're running down in your face from the heat in Sonora, CA.
• 1:16:01
  I'm just saying. OK, I take that hair.
• 1:16:04
  I shouldn't have let you. Mark bad for editing, huh?
• 1:16:14
  You said it was OK. You know, yeah, his route is in
• 1:16:21
  Sonora, CA Currently takes two to three RCA to run it daily, at
• 1:16:25
  least from reports of carriers in his office that I've talked
• 1:16:28
  to. I I heard it got cut.
• 1:16:34
  Supposedly. Yeah.
• 1:16:38
  I believe it's a government vehicle route, but no, I'd love
• 1:16:45
  to actually see him go out and deliver a route for a week or a
• 1:16:49
  month. I mean, we do know that Miss
• 1:16:51
  Boziak is running her route after leaving the national
• 1:16:56
  board. I still have reports from people
• 1:17:02
  and that I know close to the situation that she is still
• 1:17:06
  running her out. So I give her props on that.
• 1:17:12
  And again, I'm going to bite my tongue and you're not going to
• 1:17:14
  talk me into saying it either. I will not this time, I've made
• 1:17:18
  the mistake once, but. The.
• 1:17:25
  Thing about it is whatever happens, whatever happens, just
• 1:17:32
  know we are doing what we can to make this craft better and every
• 1:17:38
  single listener to this needs to do the same.
• 1:17:41
  Every single carrier listening to this, every single national
• 1:17:44
  board member listening to this or their appointed employee
• 1:17:48
  that's listening to this needs to focus on doing what is
• 1:17:53
  important to this craft. Rural carriers first, last and
• 1:18:00
  everything in between because that is all that matters in the
• 1:18:06
  long the long run. If we don't start turning this
• 1:18:13
  ship around and taking care of the rural carriers, there won't
• 1:18:17
  be anybody left working as rural carriers.
• 1:18:23
  Look at how many routes are having carriers having to work
• 1:18:26
  their relief days because we can't hire in RC as because we
• 1:18:29
  don't pay them enough. We require them to have a
• 1:18:31
  vehicle before they have any money to afford a vehicle.
• 1:18:36
  And we're turning around and just devastating this craft with
• 1:18:41
  things like the MOU telling them that they can volunteer to help
• 1:18:46
  on other routes and management has turned it around to a volunt
• 1:18:49
  old situation. What do we have to do to return
• 1:18:58
  to where people were lining up out the door for this job?
• 1:19:03
  What do we have to do to where people take pride in this job
• 1:19:10
  and the job that they do and then what they do for their
• 1:19:13
  customers? How do we fix what is going on
• 1:19:19
  with this postal, with this union?
• 1:19:22
  That's what I'm here to do. We need higher wages.
• 1:19:28
  There is no way we are going to get people in these doors
• 1:19:31
  without higher wages. We need to get rid of the
• 1:19:37
  hostile and toxic work environment.
• 1:19:41
  We need to get the public involved to speed up the mail
• 1:19:46
  delivery process. FedEx and and UPS are beating us
• 1:19:52
  in transit Times Now for packages and express and things
• 1:19:57
  like that. We are losing out on that
• 1:19:59
  market. We need.
• 1:20:04
  To have a responsive and proactive NSS and National board
• 1:20:12
  you need to stop being behind the 8 ball on this.
• 1:20:18
  And we need a union that focuses on carrier participation in
• 1:20:28
  union things over just getting union dues into the coffers.
• 1:20:38
  We are people. We are not numbers on a
• 1:20:41
  spreadsheet and we need somebody who doesn't look at us like a
• 1:20:46
  spreadsheet, doesn't get statistics on accidents from
• 1:20:50
  management, and blames the carriers for the accident.
• 1:20:57
  Or a vehicle for Jews generation.
• 1:21:01
  Yes, just the number on a spreadsheet for how much dues
• 1:21:05
  have they paid in? How much money do they donate to
• 1:21:08
  PAC? What have they done for the
• 1:21:11
  union lately? I understand the question is not
• 1:21:15
  what has the union done for you, but what have you done for the
• 1:21:18
  union? And most people say I pay my
• 1:21:20
  dues. Well, I need you to step up and
• 1:21:25
  participate because just paying dues doesn't help the situation.
• 1:21:34
  It benefits us in in the long run with things that we're
• 1:21:37
  fighting for and fighting grievances and things like that.
• 1:21:42
  But we need the active participation of our craft to be
• 1:21:46
  involved. Look at the city carriers.
• 1:21:49
  Look at the participation that they have, the concerned letter
• 1:21:53
  carriers running against the regime of Brian Renfro and
• 1:21:57
  others fighting to change their craft.
• 1:22:03
  It's just like the great postal strike in the 70s.
• 1:22:07
  It wasn't the rural carriers that started it, it was the city
• 1:22:10
  carriers. It's time for our craft to step
• 1:22:15
  up. It's time for us to get
• 1:22:17
  involved. It's time for us to say enough
• 1:22:19
  is enough. And yes, I'm using a line from
• 1:22:23
  Mastin and they the privatization of the Postal
• 1:22:26
  Service. So but it's true, we've had
• 1:22:31
  enough of being treated like second class citizens,
• 1:22:36
  especially table tours feeling like second class citizens to
• 1:22:39
  table runners. And I'm not saying table runners
• 1:22:42
  don't deserve more. Table runners deserve a lot more
• 1:22:45
  too. Gone are the days of this job
• 1:22:49
  being the only job that a person has to have in a family to
• 1:22:54
  support A4 family member household.
• 1:22:58
  Gone are the days where one person could afford a home, a
• 1:23:03
  car, and a vacation off of a single salary.
• 1:23:14
  And I'm not calling for a strike because that is illegal.
• 1:23:18
  Title 39 refers back to Title 5 with the anti strike clause.
• 1:23:24
  Plus we have the anti strike clause in our contract.
• 1:23:30
  But we can protest, we can stand out and get the public involved,
• 1:23:37
  especially with the mail delivery and things like that.
• 1:23:40
  There are a lot of things we can do legally to make a change, but
• 1:23:47
  in order to do that we have to stand up and step up.
• 1:23:54
  I need everybody who is on the fence about being a delegate to
• 1:24:01
  just do it. If you're even thinking 1% about
• 1:24:06
  running as a as a delegate to the National Convention next
• 1:24:10
  year, just freaking do it. And we're talking about next
• 1:24:18
  year because this year's already been set in stone and we've been
• 1:24:22
  pushing it since the end of National Convention last year
• 1:24:26
  for this very reason, because it comes up quickly.
• 1:24:32
  What I did, I will say this, the the very first issue of the year
• 1:24:40
  of the Rural Letter Carrier magazine, they have the signed
• 1:24:44
  up. I don't let it sit in my house
• 1:24:47
  more than a day. I make a photocopy of that page,
• 1:24:50
  I fill it out. I self nominate.
• 1:24:53
  Shameless plug vote Josh Stove delegate North Carolina.
• 1:25:00
  But I fill it out and I send it in and when I get the
• 1:25:05
  confirmation back from my secretary of treasurer, I don't
• 1:25:08
  let it sit in my house more than a day.
• 1:25:12
  When y'all get your ballots, don't sit on them because life
• 1:25:18
  has that funny thing of bill. What's that little phrase that
• 1:25:22
  had life, Blake? Out of sight, out of mind.
• 1:25:28
  Life happens out of sight, out of mind, stuff happens.
• 1:25:35
  If y'all are serious about this, step up you need.
• 1:25:41
  If you have people in your office that aren't members, talk
• 1:25:45
  to them, get them involved, invite them to a union meeting.
• 1:25:55
  Well, we, we have been harping about the delegates since last
• 1:25:59
  year. After the convention, we started
• 1:26:01
  talking about it and we we have talked incessantly in regards to
• 1:26:07
  selecting the right delegates. And James is right in regards
• 1:26:11
  to, you know, changing, you know, the, the mindset and
• 1:26:15
  changing management and changing the way they treat us.
• 1:26:19
  But it starts with strong leadership and we don't have
• 1:26:24
  that. Yeah, let me run a scenario.
• 1:26:27
  Let let you know. Yeah, let me, let me run a
• 1:26:29
  scenario by you, OK. And James don't make events to
• 1:26:33
  this, OK? I'm going to.
• 1:26:35
  We got all right. Well, you probably will.
• 1:26:37
  You, you, you, you, you sensitive piece of shit you.
• 1:26:43
  Let's say we go to the convention.
• 1:26:45
  James runs for president against Don Madsen and loses.
• 1:26:49
  OK, Now in my mind, this is how this is going to go.
• 1:26:53
  Don Madsen's going to have a lame duck year at the convention
• 1:26:58
  for 2026. John Adams will resign his
• 1:27:01
  position as the director of Labor relations and run for
• 1:27:03
  president, which he would probably win handily.
• 1:27:06
  This is my scenario. OK, If James loses to Madsen,
• 1:27:12
  then he ought to run for either Vice President or Director of
• 1:27:16
  Stewart Operations. That's my opinion.
• 1:27:19
  This is a scenario I've laid out.
• 1:27:22
  Anybody who votes for Don Madsen this year saying that he's a
• 1:27:26
  lame duck, he's going to retire at the end of next year and all
• 1:27:29
  that, and doesn't think that Don Madsen can influence and harm
• 1:27:33
  this craft any more than he already has is full of shit.
• 1:27:39
  Because he will continue to sign MO use in regards to assisting
• 1:27:43
  on other routes. He will continue to sign MO use,
• 1:27:47
  extending people to be responsible for their pay cuts
• 1:27:52
  and paying money back. Because the post office and our,
• 1:27:58
  what you call it the doctors of engineering that screwed up the
• 1:28:04
  system are holding us accountable for monies even
• 1:28:08
  though we've paid. We we've worked over 48 hour K
• 1:28:11
  rates for years and never got paid for a penny of it.
• 1:28:15
  The money they got back from these carriers this past year is
• 1:28:19
  pennies and compared to the dollars, hundreds and thousands,
• 1:28:23
  millions of dollars that they have gotten off us for free on
• 1:28:27
  overburden routes. And on top of that, Don Matson
• 1:28:32
  will probably sign another MOU in regards to freezing routes
• 1:28:36
  for even longer period of time than too many mail surveys,
• 1:28:40
  which as we we pointed out several episodes ago ago, that
• 1:28:44
  could be up to 17 months of frozen pay.
• 1:28:50
  And if you're in an area like myself where there isn't a lot
• 1:28:53
  of room for growth or anything, you're pretty much screwed for a
• 1:28:59
  year and a half. So before you know you, you
• 1:29:05
  think that you know your, your vote for a delegate next year,
• 1:29:09
  that your vote, vote for a delegate this year.
• 1:29:11
  Doesn't matter if these people vote along the lines that they
• 1:29:16
  have for the past five years, vote for Don Madsen again, it
• 1:29:22
  it'll be just as bad as they did last year because look at the
• 1:29:26
  contract we got. I'm going for substantial wage
• 1:29:31
  increases. I want to eliminate the Table 2
• 1:29:34
  tier system. We got and either.
• 1:29:38
  And the right reason. And as a.
• 1:29:40
  In the only he only called it a positive because they didn't do
• 1:29:45
  any concessions. Well, if you don't take any
• 1:29:47
  concessions, you don't get any major wins.
• 1:29:50
  Unfortunately, that was the you know, if you're not willing.
• 1:29:54
  No, no, no, no. Thanks.
• 1:29:57
  You're not going to win. James He James he did get 2
• 1:30:00
  weeks taken off of every step on Table 2.
• 1:30:06
  OK. So I get get to the top steps
• 1:30:08
  six months earlier. Oh, that?
• 1:30:12
  That's right, The city carriers had steps removed from theirs,
• 1:30:17
  didn't they? The whole steps removed, yeah.
• 1:30:21
  Yeah, not weeks steps. And the clerks continue to have
• 1:30:28
  full colas for all their tables. Why didn't we get the full colas
• 1:30:39
  like the APW you did on both tables?
• 1:30:43
  Because you have to have. A cola.
• 1:30:46
  You, you because you need somebody at in leadership role
• 1:30:48
  with a backbone. That's why you need somebody
• 1:30:53
  with a better strategy in regards to negotiating instead
• 1:30:56
  of going in there saying I'll take whatever you gave the city
• 1:30:59
  carriers. Here's here's my prediction of a
• 1:31:03
  Don Masten presidency. It's going to start out OK.
• 1:31:09
  We're going to get a couple months in and the MOU has to be
• 1:31:14
  renewed for regular carriers to volunteer on other routes.
• 1:31:19
  Management's going to come back with the volunteer and as Masten
• 1:31:25
  there, as was alluded to me from a national Board member that I
• 1:31:29
  will not name, Mastin had presented to the National Board
• 1:31:33
  a contract for that MOU was actually in the contract and
• 1:31:39
  management was fighting to get rid of Christmas overtime to put
• 1:31:44
  that MOU in there. What I see happening is Mastin
• 1:31:48
  renewing that MOU, removing the volunteer wording from it and
• 1:31:54
  making it a violent old situation where management can
• 1:31:57
  force carriers to do that or they can sign up for an OT list
• 1:32:01
  like city carriers do, and they'll be told, here's the part
• 1:32:06
  that you're going to take today because we're short so many
• 1:32:08
  carriers on route. The next thing I will see is no,
• 1:32:12
  that he's not going to sign another MOU making it longer for
• 1:32:15
  carriers to get their route adjusted.
• 1:32:17
  The 50 to the 52 weeks was the bare minimum to make sure that
• 1:32:22
  52 weeks worth of data was available for the route.
• 1:32:25
  But I do see that MOU continuing in perpetuity to protect
• 1:32:30
  carriers as he says. But it's just hurting carriers
• 1:32:34
  because we are paid on the past 52 weeks.
• 1:32:37
  Now. See our, our mail count system
• 1:32:41
  was designed to take the volume of the mail in that two week
• 1:32:44
  count and pay us an approximation of what that
• 1:32:47
  volume would be for the next year or six months or however
• 1:32:53
  long till the next count happened.
• 1:32:57
  Now everything is based on the past 52 weeks.
• 1:33:01
  So work we've done is what we're getting paid for.
• 1:33:03
  Now these this MOU hurts those carriers that have been doing
• 1:33:09
  that work, but it does hurt the carriers that are picking up the
• 1:33:13
  slack on those routes. So I don't see him getting rid
• 1:33:16
  of that MOU because it benefits the 33% of carriers that get
• 1:33:21
  route increases from the stuff cut off of the route.
• 1:33:26
  I do see more things coming down the pipeline.
• 1:33:31
  I know the red line policy is coming back again.
• 1:33:34
  I just saw it in the management chat that I'm part of that
• 1:33:39
  they're reinstituting red line policies and quite a few offices
• 1:33:42
  again. So I maybe see Mastin agreeing
• 1:33:46
  to allowing that on our end of shift duties because we get paid
• 1:33:49
  straight time to stand there and wait for management to verify
• 1:33:52
  our mail. And I see a a complete
• 1:33:58
  disheartening of this craft because situations still are not
• 1:34:01
  getting resolved in these offices.
• 1:34:03
  The hostile work environment's not getting resolved because
• 1:34:06
  they believe MOU is basically a lame duck because management
• 1:34:10
  argues that it's only there that they can force retraining on
• 1:34:14
  these managers, not actually terminate them, even though
• 1:34:17
  that's in the language of the MOU.
• 1:34:21
  So I see more managers getting away with hostile and toxic work
• 1:34:25
  environments with carriers and I see carriers deciding to pull
• 1:34:29
  all their dues after math is reelected.
• 1:34:32
  And I've spoken with quite a few carriers who've already said
• 1:34:35
  that if if Mastin is re elected, they will be pulling their dues
• 1:34:38
  for this craft. And that is not a threat.
• 1:34:42
  But that is just how disheartened they are are with
• 1:34:44
  how this union has been operating.
• 1:34:49
  Josh, what do you think it would be like under a Mastin
• 1:34:52
  administration for the next year?
• 1:34:57
  I'm pretty much going to echo what you say.
• 1:35:00
  I'm just waiting for that MOU to be forced on us.
• 1:35:05
  And at that point, we might as well just become city carriers.
• 1:35:12
  I mean it the, the hallmark of being a rural carrier is when
• 1:35:17
  I'm done as a regular carrier, I go home.
• 1:35:23
  I'm not here for 810 or 12 hours like a city carrier.
• 1:35:27
  I like that part of my job. I don't like working 12 hours a
• 1:35:32
  day every day. So I'm sorry.
• 1:35:40
  Do I help out another routes? Yes, but that's at my
• 1:35:43
  discretion. I don't want my discretion to be
• 1:35:46
  removed from my decision making process.
• 1:35:52
  OK, I if I want to help somebody, sure I'll help them.
• 1:35:56
  But if I have something to do after work, I'm going to go do
• 1:36:00
  it. That's part of being a rule
• 1:36:01
  carrier. Nice.
• 1:36:06
  Now, Bill, let's go the opposite end.
• 1:36:10
  Let's go the opposite end. What do you think it would be
• 1:36:14
  like under a James Brennan presidency?
• 1:36:19
  Oh, happy days. Oh, happy days.
• 1:36:25
  Well, let's see, First of all, I'd have to come down there and
• 1:36:29
  live with you since I'm going to be your special counsel in
• 1:36:32
  regards to line by line or contract writing because of the
• 1:36:37
  fact that we have a lot of problems in that contract where
• 1:36:42
  management may, management can management will that has to be
• 1:36:47
  corrected. There's oh, at least was it 52,
• 1:36:51
  I was up to 52 lines. That has to be corrected.
• 1:36:55
  The, the stop giving management the authority that they may or
• 1:37:00
  they can or they will. I, I think under your
• 1:37:05
  administration, depending on who your vice president is.
• 1:37:10
  OK. And I, and I think I know where
• 1:37:13
  you would go with that, but I'll keep that to myself.
• 1:37:16
  And I think that there would be almost like a stock
• 1:37:23
  reorganization of the headquarters down there.
• 1:37:27
  I, I think that you would start with the the two specifics,
• 1:37:31
  which would be the Department of Labor Relations and the
• 1:37:34
  Department of Stewart Operations in regards to how we address the
• 1:37:42
  toxic work environment in recruiting new Stewart's, local
• 1:37:47
  Stewart's area Stewart's and getting rid of some of these
• 1:37:53
  career NSS employees who aren't fulfilling their duties as they
• 1:37:59
  should be. I think there there would also
• 1:38:02
  be an opportunity for you to turn around and examine the
• 1:38:07
  roles of the executive committee board and the executive
• 1:38:11
  committee people in regards to how the DRS and ADRS are
• 1:38:16
  handled, how they perform and how they are overseeing in in
• 1:38:23
  the performance of their duties. As we seen in the past, we've
• 1:38:28
  had DRS removed after somebody discovered they haven't
• 1:38:32
  processed Step 2 grievances for 2 1/2 years.
• 1:38:36
  We've seen AD Rs removed. In my area, we've had three AD
• 1:38:41
  Rs removed in a year, so there's something wrong there.
• 1:38:47
  I would see you enforcing a new training module in regards to
• 1:38:52
  Stewart's training and in regards to regards to the
• 1:38:57
  recertification as well as the DRS and the AD Rs.
• 1:39:01
  You know, Dr. should be versed in the contract.
• 1:39:05
  They should be reversed in all the manuals and booklets related
• 1:39:08
  to the Postal Service to the point where they know it like
• 1:39:11
  the Bible. That's just, you know, the, the,
• 1:39:15
  the, the footprint of what I would see you do.
• 1:39:18
  I would also expect, and you know, I don't know if you, if
• 1:39:21
  that would be attainable under your, your reign, but I, I would
• 1:39:28
  also like to see the financials on the, the national Stewart
• 1:39:32
  system because you know how adamant I am about the
• 1:39:36
  expenditures that are reported on that, on the LM twos.
• 1:39:41
  One of the things that really pisses me off is that every
• 1:39:43
  year, you know, these people get a $500 advance for expenses and
• 1:39:48
  they don't pay it back at the end of the year.
• 1:39:50
  You're making $100,000 plus and don't repay a $500 advance.
• 1:39:56
  And this has been going on for 10 years, folks.
• 1:39:59
  I mean, come on. Yeah, you've earned over
• 1:40:01
  $1,000,000. You can't pay back $500 a year.
• 1:40:06
  And. One of the things I'd really
• 1:40:08
  like to see is getting rid of the houses and buying a condo
• 1:40:11
  building. I mean, you know, something
• 1:40:14
  that's a yo century located, easier to maintain and
• 1:40:18
  everything. But you know, we don't need to
• 1:40:21
  be housing our people in eight $900,000 houses just because
• 1:40:25
  that's the market down there. There's there's better ways to
• 1:40:28
  spend their money. I would like to see the other
• 1:40:30
  vice president turn around and negotiate better deals with
• 1:40:33
  these hotels. But we do our conventions after
• 1:40:40
  that. I mean, you know that, you know,
• 1:40:42
  that would be up to your discretion.
• 1:40:44
  But I, I know your, your positivity, your, your knowledge
• 1:40:48
  and your, your chutzpah for a lack of a better word, because I
• 1:40:53
  don't want to mention your big swinging brass balls that you
• 1:40:56
  have, but oh, I just did. Sorry, fact of the matter is
• 1:41:01
  that, you know, I, I would like to, to see you go in there and,
• 1:41:04
  and introduce yourself to your counterpart in the Postal
• 1:41:08
  Service and say, OK, that there's a new, new captain at
• 1:41:12
  the helm of this ship and we're coming right at you.
• 1:41:15
  We are, we deserve better. We're entitled better.
• 1:41:18
  We carry this service, we carry United States Postal Service,
• 1:41:24
  us, the city craft or the clerks.
• 1:41:27
  We are the ones that make this work and we're entitled to the
• 1:41:31
  respect, we're entitled to the integrity and we're entitled to
• 1:41:35
  the pay that carries this company.
• 1:41:40
  That's the that's what I see you doing in the 1st 30 days.
• 1:41:45
  Got. No pressure then?
• 1:41:52
  No pressure. What do you see?
• 1:41:59
  I see the abolition of this MOU where you can volunteer to work
• 1:42:06
  other routes or if it's kept, it will be enforced as a strictly
• 1:42:12
  volunteer basis. I also see a national board that
• 1:42:21
  is given a directive to go out there and recruit members to go
• 1:42:26
  to offices and talk to carriers, talk to people, not just in the
• 1:42:32
  big post offices. Go out to the the boondock post
• 1:42:37
  offices and talk to people. Especially if you're aware of an
• 1:42:40
  office that's 100% anti union. Shoot, I would want you to have
• 1:42:44
  someone in there talk into those carriers trying to figure it
• 1:42:49
  out. Why aren't they members?
• 1:42:51
  What can what can we do to get them on board?
• 1:42:58
  Other than that, folks, it's all about getting people involved
• 1:43:04
  and it's about loving the craft. And I think James Brennan's the
• 1:43:08
  best because he loves this craft and it it shows.
• 1:43:14
  He's putting himself out there to go against someone who's been
• 1:43:19
  up there for a very long time. And win or lose, James, you've
• 1:43:25
  got all the respect of the world from me.
• 1:43:31
  I appreciate that guys now. And, and let, let, let me go on
• 1:43:35
  James, as Josh said about going out the podunks and all that.
• 1:43:39
  And I and I had mentioned that before in the speech that, you
• 1:43:42
  know, you go, you go to a state convention.
• 1:43:45
  Yeah, you know, as, as a president or you go to a
• 1:43:48
  National Convention, you go to a boost or you go to whatever, you
• 1:43:51
  know, type of meetings. Take a day before or day after,
• 1:43:55
  you know, to go visit the local offices with, you know, the
• 1:43:58
  postmaster's permission, of course.
• 1:44:00
  And it and talk to these carriers get go to a couple
• 1:44:03
  offices in a day and address these situations.
• 1:44:07
  So they see that they put a face to their union and and realize,
• 1:44:13
  OK, here's a guy coming out to us asking what we need, what we
• 1:44:17
  do, you know, what have to be done.
• 1:44:19
  Make that connection with the people because there's such a
• 1:44:23
  disconnect that they don't care. They don't really have them.
• 1:44:27
  Don't know Don who Don Matson is.
• 1:44:30
  But if you put your face out there, guess what?
• 1:44:33
  Then we might swell the rights. Then we might get people to join
• 1:44:37
  the union again or for the first time.
• 1:44:41
  But if you don't. Yeah.
• 1:44:44
  And, and, you know, show them that, you know, not only can
• 1:44:47
  they participate, but you're participating in their lives.
• 1:44:51
  And, and that means a lot. I mean, I, I, I just saw where
• 1:44:58
  the, the mercy, mercy doctors or something, they're still in
• 1:45:03
  North Carolina from last year, serving 8000 meals a week in
• 1:45:10
  North Carolina. But the thing of it is that when
• 1:45:14
  that first all happened, everybody in the area with a
• 1:45:20
  helicopter was out there rescuing people, reporting, you
• 1:45:23
  know, people being stranded and all that where they could didn't
• 1:45:26
  have access to them. And yet they were shut down by
• 1:45:28
  the by FEMA, by the federal government because of air air
• 1:45:32
  safety. You know what, until you get
• 1:45:35
  your asses up in the air, don't tell me what the hell to do.
• 1:45:39
  Somebody's life is more important than anything else.
• 1:45:43
  And the same thing for you. I mean, if you get when you get
• 1:45:45
  elected, you go out there and you see the people, you hear
• 1:45:49
  their complaints. They feel that connection.
• 1:45:51
  It's like being on a campaign trail and pressing the flesh.
• 1:45:56
  If it if it's not tangible to them, then it doesn't affect
• 1:45:59
  them. It's just, you know, oh, I heard
• 1:46:03
  somebody say, oh, but yeah, I saw it on Facebook.
• 1:46:05
  Oh, yeah. That no real live contact
• 1:46:09
  solidifies your position and your concern in real time to
• 1:46:15
  individuals who felt like they've been abandoned.
• 1:46:23
  I agree with everything you guys said, and one of the things I'm
• 1:46:27
  definitely going to be doing is spending a hell of a lot of time
• 1:46:30
  in meetings with the Postmaster General because we know what's
• 1:46:37
  going on on the ground out here. He doesn't.
• 1:46:40
  He knows what FedEx does done. He knows what FedEx is doing, I
• 1:46:45
  know he's an anti union person and so on and so forth.
• 1:46:49
  But I'm going to go in there and I'm going to show him the
• 1:46:51
  benefits of our union in this craft.
• 1:46:55
  I'm going to show him the benefits of paying workers a
• 1:46:58
  living wage. Not just what they think is a
• 1:47:02
  living wage, but a wage that people can actually live on.
• 1:47:06
  I'm going to discuss how the post office can save money in
• 1:47:10
  many ways. Number one, getting rid of a lot
• 1:47:13
  of management, especially the toxic and hostile ones.
• 1:47:18
  I'm going to go in and take the time to educate management
• 1:47:23
  because it's obvious that our current national board isn't
• 1:47:28
  taking the time to educate the issues that are going on.
• 1:47:33
  For instance, another national board member told me we can file
• 1:47:37
  grievances all day long. Labor agrees with us on it.
• 1:47:41
  The operations won't fix it. Operations doesn't care that
• 1:47:45
  Labor is paying out all this money and grievances because
• 1:47:49
  they have their own mindset of what needs to be done.
• 1:47:52
  But this postmaster general is the one that can put their foot
• 1:47:55
  down and say, operations, you're costing me money.
• 1:48:00
  If you don't stop doing this and these grievances keep getting
• 1:48:03
  filed, I'm going to have to fire you.
• 1:48:09
  Taking care of these carriers is #1 importance to me.
• 1:48:14
  Taking care of every single carrier, whether they're in a
• 1:48:18
  200 route office or A1 route office, Getting boots on the
• 1:48:24
  ground is ultimate in this because I know there are
• 1:48:28
  carriers out there that can't make these meetings.
• 1:48:31
  There are carriers out there that can't get involved, like
• 1:48:34
  most should get involved, but I'm going to find a way to get
• 1:48:41
  communication to and from them because they are the reason we
• 1:48:47
  are here. They are the reason this union
• 1:48:50
  started. They are the reason this union
• 1:48:52
  fights for carriers. But we have forgotten that.
• 1:48:58
  We have been so focused on the bigger offices, on the bigger
• 1:49:02
  amount of carriers, the bigger problems because of the number
• 1:49:05
  of grievances filed. Like my office, there aren't a
• 1:49:09
  lot of grievances filed. Why?
• 1:49:11
  Because it's solved usually by having a discussion with
• 1:49:13
  management. My office would be ignored
• 1:49:17
  because there's no grievances. That shouldn't be the way.
• 1:49:21
  They should know who their designated union Rep is at any
• 1:49:25
  time to be able to contact them if they have questions or
• 1:49:29
  concerns. Yes, you have access to the
• 1:49:31
  NRLCA app in the website. But like Josh said, putting a
• 1:49:36
  face to your union representation is paramount to
• 1:49:42
  having a positive dialogue with carriers.
• 1:49:49
  In my first 30 days, it's going to be a whirlwind, and not in a
• 1:49:57
  bad sense, because I'm first going to figure out what is
• 1:50:02
  working and what isn't working first.
• 1:50:07
  Because if it is working, maybe we shore it up.
• 1:50:12
  But if it isn't working, it needs to go.
• 1:50:17
  And we need to figure out everything these carriers need
• 1:50:22
  on the ground. Because this isn't the post
• 1:50:25
  office from the 90s. Even Mastin agrees with that.
• 1:50:30
  This isn't the post office of the 90s.
• 1:50:33
  Post office of the 90s. You didn't have DPS, you didn't.
• 1:50:36
  You didn't have FSS. You didn't have Amazon and DHL
• 1:50:41
  and UPS and FedEx dropping off a crap ton of parcels at Christmas
• 1:50:44
  time because they don't even have enough manpower to cover
• 1:50:47
  their their routes. So they drop it on us thinking
• 1:50:50
  we have enough manpower to do it.
• 1:50:52
  We don't even have enough manpower to do our routes in the
• 1:50:54
  summertime, let alone at Christmas time.
• 1:50:58
  We need to find a way to get butts into these routes and care
• 1:51:03
  about those butts because otherwise we're going to be
• 1:51:09
  dying as a union. And I hate to be so negative
• 1:51:14
  about it, but we have so many open spots in this craft
• 1:51:19
  already. We're only going to make more if
• 1:51:23
  we keep going down this path. All right, guys, we're going on
• 1:51:28
  almost two hours now. Josh, your final thoughts?
• 1:51:36
  Weather is still wild. It's summer.
• 1:51:42
  Beat the heat, don't keep it moving.
• 1:51:44
  If you need to stop and take a break, take a break.
• 1:51:48
  Make sure you're hydrating, click the damn seat belt in, and
• 1:51:55
  before you know it we'll be in National Convention.
• 1:51:57
  We're just over a month away or a little over a month away from
• 1:52:03
  the start of the National Convention.
• 1:52:07
  If if you have a delegate in your office that's going there,
• 1:52:11
  if you haven't run or or if you didn't make delegate, be sure to
• 1:52:16
  talk to that delegate and let them know that that their hopes
• 1:52:24
  are resting on that, that your hopes rather are resting on them
• 1:52:28
  to represent properly at the state at the National
• 1:52:30
  Convention. But like I say, good night and
• 1:52:35
  good luck. What we've got to change
• 1:52:40
  something, y'all. We have to stand for something
• 1:52:43
  or fall for anything. That's all I got for tonight,
• 1:52:50
  Bill. Well, I, I know where you're at
• 1:52:56
  there, Josh and you're going to be wet all week like me here.
• 1:53:00
  We got a tropical storm coming ashore.
• 1:53:03
  So again, you know, if if you see water on the road, don't get
• 1:53:10
  drowned, turn around, be safe. Better to air on the safe side
• 1:53:15
  then you know to be struggling to get out of vehicle floating
• 1:53:18
  down to the Susquehanna. It is this topic of how you you
• 1:53:27
  get people to come back to the union to join the union.
• 1:53:31
  It it's like I said, you have to put a face out there.
• 1:53:35
  You have to press the flesh. You know, just like a a
• 1:53:38
  politician, you have to show sincere, you know care about
• 1:53:43
  these individuals. But most importantly, after you
• 1:53:46
  do that, you have to follow through.
• 1:53:49
  You just can't glad hand your ass up to a position.
• 1:53:53
  You have to be able to take those suggestions, those
• 1:53:57
  criticisms, and you will get criticisms if you're in a
• 1:54:00
  position of authority and you have to act on them and whether
• 1:54:05
  or not you can satisfy everybody, which will never
• 1:54:08
  happen. The fact that you actually
• 1:54:10
  attempted to do something to correct the situation just
• 1:54:14
  enforces the integrity in that individual's eye.
• 1:54:18
  Yes, I didn't get exactly what you wanted, but this was, this
• 1:54:21
  is what we did accomplish. That's a step.
• 1:54:23
  That's a positive step. I, I, I'm just, you know,
• 1:54:29
  overwhelmed. Like James said that the lack of
• 1:54:33
  traffic on the different platforms since this and the
• 1:54:38
  agreement became our contract because of the fact that it
• 1:54:42
  seems like everybody's just settled back into the, the seat
• 1:54:45
  of apathy and said, oh, well, nothing we could do.
• 1:54:48
  Well, you could have, but you didn't return your ballots, did
• 1:54:52
  you? Or some of you didn't get your
• 1:54:54
  balance. You know, I, I thought it was
• 1:54:57
  funny that I didn't get my May magazine with the information
• 1:55:02
  for the convention. It's overset on their part.
• 1:55:06
  I've gotten every other one, but that, that's kind of strange
• 1:55:09
  that I didn't get that one. But I'm informed.
• 1:55:14
  So, you know, I got a hotel, you know, I got a room at the hotel
• 1:55:17
  and, you know, didn't have to go to the overflow or anything.
• 1:55:20
  You know, I've got my plane booked and I'm all set to go.
• 1:55:25
  But you have to be involved to be aware of these situations.
• 1:55:29
  You have to be involved to have the knowledge to stand up to
• 1:55:32
  management or to stand up for somebody.
• 1:55:36
  This, this this is the type of situation where this election
• 1:55:40
  here that is coming up is going to say a lot about the delegates
• 1:55:46
  that you voted to send there. And if the same thing repeats
• 1:55:51
  itself, if history repeats itself and you need to step back
• 1:55:55
  and take a look at who the hell is voting for these people?
• 1:56:00
  Because there's something rotten in Denmark, folks, that you
• 1:56:04
  can't tell me. There's not a qualified person
• 1:56:07
  in the 50 states that we, you know, wouldn't be able to stand
• 1:56:10
  up to this current board. And actually, in the end, when I
• 1:56:15
  say current board is only two positions in there, I consider
• 1:56:18
  that need to be taken down. And I'm not going to mention
• 1:56:22
  president, vice president, I wouldn't do that.
• 1:56:24
  But the fact of the matter is that, you know, these delegates,
• 1:56:28
  as John said, speak for 100 of us.
• 1:56:33
  That's an awesome responsibility.
• 1:56:35
  It's not one to be taken lightly.
• 1:56:39
  And you shouldn't vote along party lines.
• 1:56:42
  You know, it's like Democrats and Republicans, they, you, you
• 1:56:45
  can't vote for party lines. You have to vote for the
• 1:56:49
  direction you want this craft to go in.
• 1:56:53
  And status quo is not the direction we need right now.
• 1:56:58
  We need strong supportive leadership that James would
• 1:57:04
  offer. We need strong supportive vice
• 1:57:11
  president, Director Stewart operations, director of Labor
• 1:57:14
  relations and, and quite frankly, folks that, you know,
• 1:57:18
  that, that there's a couple of executive committee people that
• 1:57:22
  I, I highly question whether they should be in those
• 1:57:25
  positions. That's my opinion.
• 1:57:30
  But the fact of the matter is, if you don't stand up, if you
• 1:57:35
  don't make a noise, if you don't belong to the union, you don't
• 1:57:39
  have a voice and we can't make the changes necessary.
• 1:57:45
  This, this is, you know, a critical point for us cast not
• 1:57:51
  as individuals, James, myself or Josh, but for our craft.
• 1:57:58
  Because otherwise we're going to be stuck in another year of
• 1:58:02
  selling the craft down the river.
• 1:58:06
  We're going to be stuck with a leader who thinks that if you're
• 1:58:10
  on Table 2, the MOU is a good way to make up extra money.
• 1:58:15
  Yes it is. But if you didn't have Table 2,
• 1:58:18
  you wouldn't need the extra money to pay your bills to buy
• 1:58:22
  groceries to fix your POV, would we?
• 1:58:28
  No, and if, if you didn't have the Table 2, then the MOU
• 1:58:33
  wouldn't be so bad because of the fact that you wouldn't need
• 1:58:36
  that as a way to, to supplement your income unless you wanted
• 1:58:40
  to. Instead of being voluntold by
• 1:58:43
  management, you could volunteer at your discretion and that's
• 1:58:48
  what it should be at your discretion.
• 1:58:53
  I, I'm deeply concerned in regards to the delegates that
• 1:59:01
  are selected. I, I hope, I pray, I honestly
• 1:59:06
  pray and I pray everyday. I pray for people on my route
• 1:59:09
  that I still, you know, I have contact with, but I, I pray for
• 1:59:15
  some sense of I, I don't know what you call it, common sense
• 1:59:21
  or integrity to vote for change, to vote the craft 1st instead of
• 1:59:28
  your personal ones, to vote for your conscience and not your
• 1:59:33
  paycheck. I mean, I'm, I think I'm
• 1:59:38
  probably one of the few people in this craft that ever had a
• 1:59:43
  route correction, done adjustment and then turned
• 1:59:48
  around and corrected it again, costing myself 5 miles every
• 1:59:53
  day, which cost me money. But not only was it the right
• 1:59:59
  thing to do, it was the efficient thing to do.
• 2:00:04
  But if they ever caught me running the route different from
• 2:00:06
  what that mileage was, you know, they would go home and put a
• 2:00:09
  Gold Star in the refrigerator because they got Bill Maher's
• 2:00:12
  ass. And I'm not a target for
• 2:00:15
  anybody. You got heat, you've got rain,
• 2:00:23
  you've got toxic work environment.
• 2:00:25
  You got asshole management, but yet you go out there and you do
• 2:00:30
  the job every day. You provide for your family, for
• 2:00:34
  yourselves, you provide for the community.
• 2:00:37
  You're, you're part of the community.
• 2:00:38
  You deliver to your your, your eyes and ears during the day.
• 2:00:43
  Yo, you're, you're the emergency services for that lonely widow
• 2:00:46
  or widower who live alone and you don't see for a couple days.
• 2:00:51
  You are the heartbeat of this damn country.
• 2:00:55
  And there you go out there and prove it and God bless you all
• 2:00:59
  because it's not an easy thing to do.
• 2:01:03
  As I always say, be professional, be efficient, be
• 2:01:09
  careful, make sure that you are the last delivery of the day
• 2:01:16
  because you are the most important delivery of the day
• 2:01:19
  and get back to your loved ones. God bless y'all James.
• 2:01:27
  Thank you, guys. I really appreciate that.
• 2:01:30
  You know, there's a lot of talk about what can happen, what
• 2:01:36
  could happen, what's involved, but to actually see it in
• 2:01:42
  action, you need to come to National Convention.
• 2:01:47
  Sure, a lot of it is boring as hell, especially if you're not
• 2:01:50
  participating, but being involved in this union in any
• 2:01:55
  way you possibly can is the only way we can make change here.
• 2:02:04
  Now I talk about this craft every week with these guys and
• 2:02:08
  former girls and so on on this and former guys on this on this
• 2:02:12
  podcast because we're passionate about this craft and we're
• 2:02:18
  trying to instill that passion into each and everyone of you,
• 2:02:23
  whether you are an alternate or a non delegate, be involved,
• 2:02:31
  help this craft and help yourself too.
• 2:02:36
  Everything that happens at National Convention affects
• 2:02:39
  every single carrier out there on the street.
• 2:02:43
  You are one of those carriers. If you're in the royal craft,
• 2:02:47
  you're not in the royal craft listening to this and it
• 2:02:49
  probably doesn't affect you, but it does affect your delivery of
• 2:02:53
  your mail. And we are required to deliver
• 2:02:55
  to every household six days a week.
• 2:02:59
  Amazon Sunday is its own beast, but six day a week mail
• 2:03:03
  delivery? Everybody in this nation is
• 2:03:07
  affected by this, and you're one of those people that's affected
• 2:03:17
  whether you're a carrier or not. I'm fighting for change because
• 2:03:25
  I see what this craft is going through and I see where it is
• 2:03:31
  headed with the current leadership.
• 2:03:36
  Even though our current national board members gave a blessing to
• 2:03:40
  this tentative agreement, I don't believe all of them fully
• 2:03:45
  supported it. I believe that it is time for us
• 2:03:52
  to step up and make the change. It's time for us to help our
• 2:04:01
  brothers and sisters. Help them learn to be safe out
• 2:04:07
  there on the route as new RC AS or new regular carriers.
• 2:04:10
  Help them learn their edit books.
• 2:04:12
  Help them learn what it means to be a brother or sister in a
• 2:04:16
  union. Because at at the end of the
• 2:04:20
  day, it's not the national board that's there for you.
• 2:04:26
  It's not your state board that's there for you.
• 2:04:28
  It's not your district Rep, assistant district Rep or your
• 2:04:33
  area steward. They're only there when you call
• 2:04:38
  them. Right now.
• 2:04:42
  It's up to each and every one of us to show our brothers and
• 2:04:47
  sisters of this craft that we're all in this together.
• 2:04:54
  We'll see you guys next week unless we have something special
• 2:04:57
  come up, as always, and I hope you guys have a safe and
• 2:05:00
  enjoyable week. See you next time.
• 2:05:05
  Good night and good luck. Hey guys, I apologize for the
• 2:05:22
  delay in getting last week's episode up.
• 2:05:25
  I had several people reach out to me due to the content of
• 2:05:31
  this. I personally have not listened
• 2:05:33
  to last week's episode, but I will say that people were warned
• 2:05:39
  in the past in person about the political soapbox and whatnot on
• 2:05:46
  the air and that was one of the reasonings why it was delayed.
• 2:05:49
  That in my life has just been busy, busy, busy, busy, busy
• 2:05:52
  lately. So it is out now and this week's
• 2:05:57
  episode will be uploaded immediately following.
• 2:06:00
  Thanks.